Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2019

Unrated tornado, Burlington Arpt to Burlington, Colorado, June 8, 2019

From Burlington Arpt to Burlington, this Unrated tornado ran 0.7 miles across Kit Carson County on June 8, 2019, touching down at 1:58 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.

  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
June 8, 2019
Touchdown
1:58 PM MDT (19:58 UTC)
Lifted
2:01 PM MDT (20:01 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kit Carson County
Touchdown point
39.298, -102.323
Lift-off point
39.296, -102.310
Record number
1906081358-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms produce brief landspouts as well as isolated hail and wind reports in northeast Colorado.

Landspout tornado near Burlington.

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 19:53 UTC and running to 01:55 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:53 UTC01:55 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGLD
19:54 UTC20:26 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
20:00 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningGLD
20:47 UTC20:59 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
21:09 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
01:37 UTC02:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
01:55 UTC04:43 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGLD
02:05 UTC02:34 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 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

8.0 hours before the tornado, 101 km from the path. June 8, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2019-06-08Temperature 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 -59796, lifted condensation level 2844 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°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 2019-06-08The 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 99 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-59796 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2844 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 101 km from the path. June 9, 2019.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2019-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 710 joules per kilogram, CIN -81, lifted condensation level 1602 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°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 2019-06-09The 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 145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
710 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-81 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1114 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1602 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
422 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
7.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:01 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
20:00 UTCTORNADO1 Nw BurlingtonKit Carson, COLANDSPOUT TORNADO REPORTED. HAS SINCE DISSIPATED.
21:12 UTCTORNADO9 E KirkYuma, COPUBLIC REPORT VIA FACEBOOK OF A LANDSPOUT.
21:39 UTCHAIL 14 W Bonny ReservoirYuma, COPUBLIC REPORTED 1 HAIL OVER HWY 385. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 8, 2019

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 85:08 PM EDTEF0Rutherford, NC0.130
June 83:12 PM MDTUnratedKit Carson, CO0.5100
June 84:35 PM CDTUnratedCheyenne, KS1.3100
June 84:45 PM CDTUnratedCheyenne, KS1.1100
June 86:19 PM MDTEF0Elbert, CO0.025
June 87:34 PM CDTEF2Polk, MN3.6400
June 88:57 PM CDTUnratedLogan, KS0.850
June 89:10 PM CDTUnratedLogan, KS2.9100
June 810:05 PM CDTUnratedLogan, KS0.6100

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.