EF2 tornado, Wray Muni Arpt to Alvin, Colorado, May 7, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

May 7, 2016

Touchdown

5:53 PM MDT (23:53 UTC)

Lifted

6:16 PM MDT (00:16 UTC)

On the ground

23 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.8 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$135,000

County

Yuma County

Touchdown point

40.120, -102.233

Lift-off point

40.233, -102.207

Record number

1605071753-01

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 tornado developed just north of the Wray airport. It remained semi-stationary for the first few minutes of its lifetime before moving north. The tornado crossed Highway 385 just north of the CR 39 intersection. As it crossed the highway it strewed barb wire fencing across the road, picked up a semi and the attached trailer, tossing them east of the highway. Cargo from the trailer was blown across the highway. A tractor parked near the highway was flipped on its side at this same location. Near this same location a mobile home had the roof removed by the tornado. Law enforcement reported around 40 electrical poles were down due to the tornado. According to law enforcement four people impacted by the tornado had minor injuries. The tornado's path was in the rural areas north of Wray. The tornado ended before reaching CR 45 east of Highway 385.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:30 UTC, 23 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), 100 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:54 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.