Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2017
EF0 tornado, Hale Bonny Dam Arpt, Colorado, May 25, 2017
This EF0 tornado ran 2.8 miles across Yuma County on May 25, 2017, touching down at 3:35 PM MDT and reaching 100 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 25, 2017
- Touchdown
- 3:35 PM MDT (21:35 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:42 PM MDT (21:42 UTC)
- On the ground
- 7 minutes
- Path length
- 2.8 miles (4.5 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Yuma County
- Touchdown point
- 39.688, -102.156
- Lift-off point
- 39.680, -102.104
- Record number
- 1705251535-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A super cell thunderstorm moved east across central Yuma County producing large hail up to three inches in diameter. The largest hail fell near Idalia. The storm also produced a tornado near Bonny Reservoir not long after the tea cup size hail was reported. Due to the tornado occurring over open country, no damage was reported. The super cell quickly weakened as it crossed into Kansas.
Based on rotation from radar, the tornado moved east-southeast and crossed CR MM but remained north of CR 7. Due to the tornado occurring over open country, no damage was reported.
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.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:47 UTC and running to 00:26 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:47 UTC | 00:26 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | GLD |
| 19:53 UTC | 20:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 20:42 UTC | 21:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 21:18 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 21:36 UTC | 22:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 21:39 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | GLD |
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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:37 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
9.6 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. May 25, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 55 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -269 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2423 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 12 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -28 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -10 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z
2.4 hours after it, 96 km from the path. May 26, 2017.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 309 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -191 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 868 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2071 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 126 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 286 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.0 K/km
The radar
The Goodland radar (KGLD), 51 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:37 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:27 UTC | HAIL 3 | 6 Ne Idalia | Yuma, CO | WINDSHEILD SMASHED. ISOLATED STONES LARGER THAN BASEBALLS. |
| 21:35 UTC | TORNADO | 5 N Bonny Reservoir | Yuma, CO | LASTED ROUGHLY 5 MINUTES. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 25, 2017
1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 25 | 1:05 PM MDT | EF0 | Logan, CO | 0.0 | 25 |
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.