EF1 tornado, Salis, Colorado, July 15, 2016

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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

July 15, 2016

Touchdown

2:08 PM MDT (20:08 UTC)

Lifted

2:13 PM MDT (20:13 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.3 miles (3.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$33,000

County

Cheyenne County

Touchdown point

38.753, -102.222

Lift-off point

38.799, -102.215

Record number

1607151408-01

During the afternoon a severe thunderstorm moved south along the Kansas/Colorado border in Cheyenne County. The storm produced two tornadoes, one south of Arapahoe and another southeast of Cheyenne Wells. The tornado south of Arapahoe damaged a farm house and broke off trees nearby. South of the farm the tornado broke off three power poles. No damage was reported with the second tornado. The storm also produced hail up to baseball size and broke tree branches south of Arapahoe.

An individual from the public reported a tornado five miles south of Arapahoe. Based on the tornadic circulation on radar, the tornado began northeast of the CR N/CR 51 intersection and crossed CR N as it moved south. The tornado caused damage to a farmstead on the east side of CR 51 south of the CR M/CR 51 intersection. Damage included trees being broken off and losing most of the shingles and roofing material off the house on the north side of the roof. The tornado also broke off three electrical poles along CR 51 roughly a quarter mile south of the house. The tornado lifted near the CR L/CR 51 intersection.

Law Enforcement reported a tornado seven miles southeast of Cheyenne Wells. Based on the time of the report and the tornadic circulation on radar, the tornado formed northeast of the CR M/CR 49 intersection and crossed CR M and CR L as the tornado moved south. After crossing CR L the tornado abruptly turned west and crossed CR 49 south of the CR L/CR 49 intersection. The tornado then continued south parallel to CR 49 until the tornado ended. No damage was reported with this tornado.

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

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 23:01 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:30 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), 52 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:08 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.

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 2016 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

3 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.