EF0 tornado, Vona to Stratton, Colorado, June 5, 2015

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

June 5, 2015

Touchdown

6:45 PM MDT (00:45 UTC)

Lifted

6:53 PM MDT (00:53 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kit Carson County

Touchdown point

39.510, -102.591

Lift-off point

39.522, -102.558

Record number

1506051845-01

Late in the afternoon through evening a series of strong to severe storms moved across East Central Colorado producing tornadoes, large hail and flash flooding. One tornado was reported north of Vona and another south of Kirk. The largest hail reported was two inches in diameter south of Cope. Due to the slow storm motion and heavy rainfall, flash flooding occurred 8 WSW of Idalia just south of Highway 34 northeast to the Highway 36/385 intersection. In this area roads were impassable due to water over them. There was also significant field flooding and a trailer house near the Highway 26/385 intersection was surrounded by water almost touching the structure. Estimated wind gusts of 85 mph laid over pine trees and bent a radio tower west of Kanorado in Colorado.

Law enforcement and trained spotters reported a large tornado over open fields about 9 miles north of Vona. No damage was reported.

A storm chaser reported a large tornado crossing the road about a mile in front of him about 12 miles north of Stratton. No damage was relayed to the National Weather Service.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:18 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 22:44 UTC and running to 02:04 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:28 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 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.

Burlington (ITR), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:42 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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