Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2014

EF0 tornado, Platteville to Gilcrest, Colorado, May 7, 2014

From Platteville to Gilcrest, this EF0 tornado ran 2.6 miles across Weld County on May 7, 2014, touching down at 3:15 PM MDT and reaching 100 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
May 7, 2014
Touchdown
3:15 PM MDT (21:15 UTC)
Lifted
3:25 PM MDT (21:25 UTC)
On the ground
10 minutes
Path length
2.6 miles (4.2 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Weld County
Touchdown point
40.230, -104.810
Lift-off point
40.208, -104.770
Record number
1405071515-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms broke out across the Urban Corridor and Northeast Plains of Colorado. The storms produced four tornadoes in Washington, Weld and Phillips Counties. No damage was observed. Elsewhere, large hail, up to 1.5 inches in diameter, was reported along with wind gusts to 70 mph.

A tornado touched down in open country. No damage was observed.

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

The warnings

36 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:39 UTC, 36 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:39 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:49 UTC06:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
18:39 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchBOU
19:45 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
19:51 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningBOU
19:51 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningBOU
20:32 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
20:39 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningBOU
21:01 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
21:27 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningBOU
22:00 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
22:26 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningBOU
00:51 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
01:12 UTC01:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
02:32 UTC03:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 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

9.3 hours before the tornado, 138 km from the path. May 7, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2014-05-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 97 joules per kilogram, CIN -126, lifted condensation level 776 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2014-05-07The 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 2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
97 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-126 J/kg
Surface CAPE
87 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
776 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 138 km from the path. May 8, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2014-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 662 joules per kilogram, CIN -100, lifted condensation level 1719 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2014-05-08The 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 126 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 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
662 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-100 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1167 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1719 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
126 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
205 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Denver radar (KFTG), 52 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:14 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
20:44 UTCHAIL 15 Nw DenverDenver, CO
20:44 UTCHAIL 1.252 Ene Fort CollinsLarimer, CO
21:07 UTCHAIL 14 E PlattevilleWeld, CO
21:18 UTCHAIL 14 S Fort CollinsLarimer, CO
21:25 UTCTORNADO1 Ne PlattevilleWeld, COTORNADO TRACK FROM PLATTEVILLE TO 5S GILCREST
21:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 70GreeleyWeld, COGREELEY AIRPORT

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 May 7, 2014

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 73:08 PM MDTEF0Sweetwater, WY0.530
May 74:05 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
May 74:22 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO5.5100
May 75:25 PM MDTEF0Phillips, CO0.150
May 77:03 PM CDTEF0Wichita, TX0.275
May 77:06 PM CDTEF0Comanche, OK1.5400

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.