Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2014

EF0 tornado, Bennett, Colorado, June 4, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Adams County on June 4, 2014, touching down at 4:01 PM MDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. EF2111 to 135 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. EF3136 to 165 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. EF5over 200 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 4, 2014
Touchdown
4:01 PM MDT (22:01 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Adams County
Touchdown point
39.760, -104.400
Lift-off point
39.760, -104.400
Record number
1406041601-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms producing damaging straight-line winds, large hail and tornadoes moved across northern Lincoln County. The wind and large hail caused extensive damage. In Hugo, a detached garage and a small shed were blown over and a roof was blown off a trailer home. Two classic cars in the garage were damaged. Extensive tree damage occurred with large limbs broken off trees throughout town. Scattered damage to north facing windows was also observed with more isolated damage to shingles, gutters and vehicle windows. A truck was blown over just southeast of Hugo, causing minor injuries to the two occupants. Hail damage was reported in the northern part of Limon, east of Hugo and in Genoa. The majority damage to windows and siding occurred on the north facing sides of the homes and buildings. The hail also injured a number of cattle northeast of Hugo. Four tornadoes were observed but only one produced minor damage.

A tornado touched down briefly but no damage was reported.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:23 UTC23:40 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
01:16 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 22:10 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Denver, CO (KDEN), 12:00Z

10.0 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. June 4, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2014-06-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 39 joules per kilogram, CIN -244, lifted condensation level 1718 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2014-06-04The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -49 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
39 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-244 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1718 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-49 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
3 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

2.0 hours after it, 101 km from the path. June 5, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2014-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 168 joules per kilogram, CIN -122, lifted condensation level 3163 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2014-06-05The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 111 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 75 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
168 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-122 J/kg
Surface CAPE
684 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3163 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
75 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
111 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
262 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
9.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Denver radar (KFTG), 13 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:01 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:01 UTCTORNADO1 E BennettAdams, COBRIEF TOUCHDOWN

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 4, 2014

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 45:25 AM CDTEF0Jersey, IL1.430
June 411:55 AM EDTEF0Scioto, OH1.2300$100,000
June 43:40 PM EDTEF0Highland, OH4.1200$300,000
June 46:16 PM CDTEF1Union, KY1.1100$20,000
June 46:30 PM CDTEF1Union, KY1.175$14,000
June 49:30 PM EDTEF1Cabell, WV0.5400$30,000
June 48:15 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO0.150
June 410:15 PM MDTEF1Lincoln, CO5.2200
June 410:44 PM MDTEF0Lincoln, CO3.4100

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.