Tornadoes · United States · Colorado

2016 tornadoes in Colorado

39 tornadoes touched down in Colorado in 2016, 20 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2015 2017 The whole country in 2016

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Colorado in 2016

April 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 12	3:02 PM MDT	Unrated	Weld	0.0	50

April 15 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
April 15	2:08 PM MDT	Unrated	Kiowa	3.9	150
April 15	2:26 PM MDT	Unrated	Kiowa	0.5	100
April 15	3:05 PM MDT	Unrated	Kiowa	1.2	100
April 15	6:10 PM MDT	Unrated	Bent	0.6	100

May 7 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 7	2:20 PM MDT	EF0	Morgan	0.5	50
May 7	2:25 PM MDT	EF0	Weld	0.5	50
May 7	2:55 PM MDT	EF2	Weld	8.8	1,320
May 7	3:35 PM MDT	EF0	Morgan	0.5	50
May 7	4:06 PM MDT	EF0	Yuma	4.0	25
May 7	4:57 PM MDT	EF0	Yuma	1.3	25
May 7	5:37 PM MDT	EF0	Yuma	0.6	100
May 7	5:53 PM MDT	EF2	Yuma	7.9	440	4	$135,000

May 24 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 24	5:44 PM MDT	EF0	Washington	0.0	50
May 24	5:48 PM MDT	EF0	Adams	0.0	50
May 24	6:44 PM MDT	EF0	Washington	0.0	50
May 24	6:47 PM MDT	EF1	Washington	0.9	20
May 24	7:36 PM MDT	EF0	Yuma	1.2	25

May 26 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 26	5:05 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne	0.0	50
May 26	5:23 PM MDT	EF0	Kit Carson	4.1	25

May 27 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
May 27	2:43 PM MDT	Unrated	Kiowa	0.1	50
May 27	2:55 PM MDT	Unrated	Kiowa	1.0	100
May 27	3:04 PM MDT	Unrated	Kiowa	0.2	75

May 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	2:18 PM MDT	EF1	Logan	4.5	100

June 13 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 13	1:41 PM MDT	Unrated	Las Animas	2.8	200
June 13	5:24 PM MDT	EF0	Morgan	0.1	50

June 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 23	1:27 PM MDT	Unrated	Fremont	0.2	50

June 27 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Width (yd)
June 27	2:51 PM MDT	EF0	Kit Carson	25
June 27	4:40 PM MDT	EF0	Sedgwick	25
June 27	5:30 PM MDT	EF0	Phillips	25

June 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 30	6:58 PM MDT	EF0	Kit Carson	1.1	25

July 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 2	6:31 PM MDT	EF0	Adams	0.0	25

July 15 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
July 15	2:08 PM MDT	EF1	Cheyenne	2.3	100	$33,000
July 15	2:19 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne	3.6	200
July 15	3:00 PM MDT	EF0	Kiowa	3.8	50

July 27 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 27	4:54 PM MDT	EF0	Weld	0.0	25

September 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 2	4:05 PM MDT	EF0	Washington	0.0	50

September 17 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 17	3:43 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne	0.8	100			$46,000
September 17	3:43 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne	1.9	100

Nearby

Every tornado in Colorado since 1950 Warnings in force in Colorado The live radar over Colorado

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.