Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2016

EF0 tornado, Julesburg, Colorado, June 27, 2016

This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Sedgwick County on June 27, 2016, touching down at 4:40 PM MDT and reaching 25 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
June 27, 2016
Touchdown
4:40 PM MDT (22:40 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sedgwick County
Touchdown point
40.900, -102.160
Lift-off point
40.900, -102.160
Record number
1606271640-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms produced large hail, up to baseball size, and strong winds in parts of Phillips and Sedgwick Counties. Two weak tornadoes also touched down briefly. The hail and strong winds produced extensive damage to homes, cars and other vehicles. Large hail was also observed over parts of Morgan and Weld Counties.

A tornado touched down briefly but did no damage.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:39 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:31 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:31 UTC02:00 UTCTornado WatchBOU
21:38 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
22:22 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
22:22 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
22:39 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningBOU
22:48 UTC23:05 UTCTornado 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 19:52 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

10.7 hours before the tornado, 133 km from the path. June 27, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2016-06-27Temperature 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 -82292, lifted condensation level 2519 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2016-06-27The 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 44 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-82292 J/kg
Surface CAPE
48 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2519 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
195 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 133 km from the path. June 28, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2016-06-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 846 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 1522 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2016-06-28The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.193958Sfc1 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
846 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3124 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1522 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
3.8
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 175 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:41 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
22:00 UTCHAIL 1.75JulesburgSedgwick, CO
22:01 UTCHAIL 1.75Nne JulesburgSedgwick, COVERY STRONG WINDS
22:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 55CrookLogan, CO
22:40 UTCTORNADO8 Se JulesburgSedgwick, COBRIEF TORNADO IN OPEN RANGELAND
22:46 UTCHAIL 1.56 Sse JulesburgSedgwick, CO
23:03 UTCHAIL 2.753 Wnw FairfieldSedgwick, CO
23:05 UTCHAIL 1.54 E HaxtunPhillips, COSTRONG WIND
23:14 UTCHAIL 11 E AmherstPhillips, CO
23:26 UTCHAIL 2.752 Wsw PaoliPhillips, CO
23:30 UTCTORNADOPaoliPhillips, COBRIEF WEAK TOUCHDOWN
23:45 UTCHAIL 2.5PaoliPhillips, CO
23:47 UTCHAIL 2.55 W PaoliPhillips, COBROKEN WINDOWS

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 June 27, 2016

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 272:51 PM MDTEF0Kit Carson, CO0.025
June 275:30 PM MDTEF0Phillips, CO0.025

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.