Unrated tornado, Lamar, Colorado, May 26, 2019

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.

Rating

Unrated

Date

May 26, 2019

Touchdown

2:38 PM MDT (20:38 UTC)

Lifted

2:40 PM MDT (20:40 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Prowers County

Touchdown point

38.120, -102.580

Lift-off point

38.120, -102.580

Record number

1905261438-01

The afternoon and evening of Sunday, May 26th was a very active severe weather day across the eastern Colorado plains. The region had been outlooked with a Moderate risk of severe thunderstorms and tornadoes. A mesoscale discussion from SPC came out at 1119 AM MDT highlighting much of the eastern plains of Colorado for the need of a Tornado Watch within the next couple of hours. At 1230 PM MDT SPC issued Tornado Watch #253 to include Baca, Bent, Crowley, Kiowa, Las Animas, Otero, and Prowers Counties. Throughout the afternoon and evening hours several supercell thunderstorms developed and moved southwest to northeast through the eastern Colorado plains counties. Several reports of large damaging hail, destructive winds, and a few tornadoes were seen by area SKYWARN spotters and Storm Chasers.

NWS Pueblo employee spotted a brief tornado near Lamar, CO. The tornado stayed in open fields producing no visible damage. A storm survey was not conducted without any damage indicators to properly assess a EF rating.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS PUB issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:38 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:48 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:30 UTC and running to 02:18 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Lamar (LAA), 11 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:31 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

37 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.