Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2016

Unrated tornado, Mc Clave, Colorado, April 15, 2016

This Unrated tornado ran 0.6 miles across Bent County on April 15, 2016, touching down at 6:10 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 mph

    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. Unratedthis tornado

    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
Unrated
Date
April 15, 2016
Touchdown
6:10 PM MDT (00:10 UTC)
Lifted
6:13 PM MDT (00:13 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Bent County
Touchdown point
38.177, -102.791
Lift-off point
38.185, -102.787
Record number
1604151810-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe storms erupted across the southeast plains across Kiowa, Bent, and Baca Counties, causing hail up to the size of golfballs. Four tornados occurred across open areas in Kiowa and Bent Counties, and caused no damage.

Storm chasers captured video of a tornado across open country. The tornado caused no damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:57 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:44 UTC20:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
19:51 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningPUB
19:57 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WatchPUB
21:25 UTC21:34 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
21:42 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
22:26 UTC23:04 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
23:00 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
00:11 UTC00:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
00:20 UTC02:05 UTCFlood AdvisoryPUB

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 0.05 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), 00:00Z

0.2 hours before the tornado, 192 km from the path. April 16, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2016-04-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -94466, lifted condensation level 874 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2016-04-16The 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 75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-94466 J/kg
Surface CAPE
29 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
874 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
506 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 12:00Z

11.8 hours after it, 192 km from the path. April 16, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2016-04-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -92069, lifted condensation level 659 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2016-04-16The 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 191 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-92069 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
659 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
191 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
354 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:08 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
21:20 UTCHAIL 15 N EadsKiowa, COVIA TWITTER
21:22 UTCHAIL 15 S Kit CarsonCheyenne, CO
21:31 UTCHAIL 15 S Kit CarsonCheyenne, CO
22:01 UTCHAIL 0.5EadsKiowa, CO
22:05 UTCHAIL 1.52 S EadsKiowa, COSIZE RANGE 1-1.5 INCH.
00:16 UTCTORNADO3 W WileyBent, COTRAINED SPOTTER NEAR CTY RD HH.5. BRIEF SIGHTING, QUICKLY RECEDED.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 15, 2016

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 152:08 PM MDTUnratedKiowa, CO3.9150
April 152:26 PM MDTUnratedKiowa, CO0.5100
April 153:05 PM MDTUnratedKiowa, CO1.2100
April 157:50 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK1.150
April 157:56 PM CDTEF1Texas, OK1.160
April 158:02 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK0.950
April 158:16 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK1.050
April 158:19 PM CDTEF0Texas, OK0.825
April 158:30 PM CDTEF1Morton, KS1.8125$80,000
April 158:52 PM CDTEF0Morton, KS3.5400
April 159:50 PM CDTEF0Oldham, TX0.850

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.