EF0 tornado, Wray, Colorado, May 7, 2016

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 7, 2016

Touchdown

5:37 PM MDT (23:37 UTC)

Lifted

5:40 PM MDT (23:40 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Yuma County

Touchdown point

40.031, -102.233

Lift-off point

40.040, -102.232

Record number

1605071737-01

Scattered strong to severe thunderstorms developed over East Central Colorado along a warm front, with the storms and warm front moving north during the afternoon. Four tornadoes occurred with these storms during the afternoon, all of them in the Eckley and Wray area. Three of the four tornadoes lasted less than 10 minutes. The strongest and most destructive tornado developed on the northwest side of Wray and moved north-northeast. There were no fatalities with this tornado, but there were 4 minor injuries. Large hail also occurred with some of these storms. The largest hail stone was 2.5 in diameter which fell near Alvin. The strongest severe wind gust was estimated to be 65 MPH reported north of Seibert.

The weak tornado moved due north, crossing CR 32 less than a half mile west of the CR 32 and Highway 385 intersection. The tornado moved through electrical lines, but no power flashes or damage to the lines were evident in video of the tornado from a storm chaser. The tornado remained in open fields during its lifetime.

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

7 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:30 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:31 UTC and running to 03:00 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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.

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:36 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

8 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.