Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2016

Unrated tornado, Towner, Colorado, May 27, 2016

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Kiowa County on May 27, 2016, touching down at 2:43 PM MDT and reaching 50 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
May 27, 2016
Touchdown
2:43 PM MDT (20:43 UTC)
Lifted
2:44 PM MDT (20:44 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kiowa County
Touchdown point
38.540, -102.080
Lift-off point
38.539, -102.079
Record number
1605271443-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Three landspout tornados occurred around Towner across open fields and caused no damage.

Law enforcement witnessed a brief landspout tornado. The tornado caused no damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating.

A brief landspout tornado was witnessed by a trained spotter. The tornado caused no damage from which the NWS could assign an EF-scale rating.

A storm chaser 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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:07 UTC20:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
20:44 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningPUB
21:10 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningPUB
21:43 UTC22:15 UTCTornado WarningPUB

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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), 12:00Z

8.7 hours before the tornado, 178 km from the path. May 27, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2016-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 34 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 997 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2016-05-27The 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 223 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
34 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
145 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
997 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
223 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
167 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

3.3 hours after it, 178 km from the path. May 28, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2016-05-28Temperature 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 -90628, lifted condensation level 1513 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 2016-05-28The 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 -48 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-90628 J/kg
Surface CAPE
577 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1513 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-48 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-50 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Syracuse (3K3), 67 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:55 UTC64.446.4150° 4 kt1005.4
19:15 UTC66.246.4210° 6 kt1005.4
19:35 UTC64.444.6170° 7 kt1005.1
19:55 UTC64.444.6170° 5 kt1005.1
20:15 UTC66.246.4160° 5 kt1004.7
20:35 UTC64.446.4220° 5 kt1004.7
20:55 UTC64.446.40° 0 kt1004.7
21:15 UTC64.446.4240° 3 kt1004.7
21:35 UTC64.444.60° 0 kt1004.7
21:55 UTC64.446.4210° 8 kt1004.7
22:15 UTC62.648.2290° 16 kt231005.4-DZ
22:35 UTC55.450310° 26 kt311005.4-DZ

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

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:45 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
20:43 UTCTORNADO5 N TownerKiowa, COBRIEF TOUCHDOWN OBSERVED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.
20:55 UTCTORNADO1 Ese TownerKiowa, COTORNADO DURATION 5 MINUTES.
20:55 UTCTORNADO1 Ese TownerKiowa, CO
21:04 UTCTORNADO1 N TownerKiowa, COTORNADO DURATION 2 MINUTES.
21:04 UTCTORNADO1 N TownerKiowa, CO

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 May 27, 2016

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 271:28 PM CDTEF0Jasper, TX0.150$2,000
May 272:14 PM CDTEF0Red Lake, MN0.150
May 272:57 PM CDTEF0Clay, MN0.175
May 273:01 PM CDTEF0Clay, MN0.150
May 272:51 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.125
May 272:55 PM MDTUnratedKiowa, CO1.0100
May 273:04 PM MDTUnratedKiowa, CO0.275
May 273:12 PM MDTEF0Greeley, KS0.125
May 274:13 PM CDTEF0Wichita, KS0.925
May 275:26 PM CDTEF0Butler, KS0.150
May 275:35 PM CDTEF1Fond du Lac, WI4.5330$100,000
May 275:42 PM CDTEF0Lane, KS1.950
May 276:16 PM CDTEF0Lane, KS1.350
May 276:21 PM CDTEF0Ness, KS0.850

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.