EF0 tornado, Westcliffe, Colorado, July 22, 2019

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

July 22, 2019

Touchdown

4:30 PM MDT (22:30 UTC)

Lifted

4:35 PM MDT (22:35 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Custer County

Touchdown point

38.200, -105.460

Lift-off point

38.200, -105.460

Record number

1907221630-01

A rather rare event took place on July 22, 2019 in the town of Westcliffe, CO, a tornado touched down. The last time a tornado touched down in Westcliffe, elevation of 8,500 feet, was back in the mid 1980s, per anecdotal evidence from the local population.||The tornado touched down near William Avenue traveling in a southeast to northwest direction. A continuous path of damage was seen for one-third of a mile before lifting as it crossed Vista Dr. No further visible damage was seen beyond this point |but witnesses said the tornado touched down again before nearing Wolf Street and then lifted for a final time. Much of the damage included canopies, carports, RVs, and gazebos. No primary residence damage was seen outside of a few missing |shingles, peeled up metal roofing, and a few blown in windows by flying debris. One carport awning was lifted off the ground nearly 100 feet and then carried nearly 100 yards before it was dropped onto a nearby roof. No injuries were reported.

A tornado touched down near William Avenue in |Westcliffe, CO on the evening of July 22, 2019, traveling in|a southeast to northwest direction. A continuous path of damage |was seen for one-third of a mile before lifting as it crossed |Vista Dr. No further visible damage was seen beyond this point |but witnesses said the tornado touched down again before |nearing Wolf Street and then lifted for a final time. |Much of the damage included canopies, carports, RVs, and gazebos.|No primary residence damage was seen outside of a few missing |shingles, peeled up metal roofing, and a few blown in windows by |flying debris. One carport awning was lifted off the ground nearly|100 feet and then carried nearly 100 yards before it was dropped |onto a nearby roof. No injuries were reported.

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

1 minute of warning. NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:29 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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 Pueblo radar (KPUX), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:29 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 2019 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

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.