Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2022

EF1 tornado, Ft Morgan Arpt to Brush, Colorado, July 7, 2022

From Ft Morgan Arpt to Brush, this EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Morgan County on July 7, 2022, touching down at 4:39 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 mphthis tornado

    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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
July 7, 2022
Touchdown
4:39 PM MDT (22:39 UTC)
Lifted
4:42 PM MDT (22:42 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (1.0 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Morgan County
Touchdown point
40.307, -103.736
Lift-off point
40.298, -103.735
Record number
2207071639-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms produced six short-lived tornadoes across northeast Weld and Morgan counties. Two of those landspouts were rated as EF1. In Weld County, the tornado downed several trees and power poles. In Morgan County, some oak trees were shredded and a power pole was snapped. Across Douglas, Elbert and northern Lincoln counties, severe thunderstorms produced large hail, from quarter to half dollar size. Strong thunderstorm wind gusts to 60 mph were reported along highway 71, south of Limon.

A tornado knocked down several trees and power poles.

A tornado touched down briefly and caused minor damage.

A tornado caused crop damage, between County Road R and Road 22825.

A tornado touched down and snapped a utility pole near the 24500 block of County Road R.

A tornado touched down and caused minor wind damage at 25512 Road R.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:36 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:19 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 (KDNR), 12:00Z

10.7 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. July 7, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2022-07-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 10 joules per kilogram, CIN -274, lifted condensation level 1805 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2022-07-07The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 14 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
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-274 J/kg
Surface CAPE
56 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1805 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 64 km from the path. July 8, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2022-07-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 594 joules per kilogram, CIN -84, lifted condensation level 2066 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2022-07-08The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.1939Sfc1 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
594 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1066 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2066 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
185 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Morgan (FMM), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:55 UTC84.264.4 6 kt1019.6
21:15 UTC82.457.2270° 16 kt221020.3
21:35 UTC73.462.6280° 19 kt1020.3-TSRA
21:55 UTC73.459300° 17 kt241020.7
22:15 UTC75.260.8350° 9 kt201020.3-RA
22:35 UTC78.857.220° 17 kt231020
22:55 UTC7755.4360° 18 kt251020.7
23:15 UTC75.257.220° 20 kt261020.7
23:35 UTC73.455.4360° 16 kt1020.7
23:55 UTC73.455.410° 12 kt1020.7
00:15 UTC73.455.440° 8 kt1020.7
00:35 UTC73.455.450° 9 kt1020.7

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

The radar

The Denver radar (KFTG), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:39 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 7, 2022

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 72:32 PM CDTUnratedCarroll, IA0.420
July 75:17 PM CDTUnratedHardin, IA0.320
July 74:42 PM MDTEF0Morgan, CO0.050
July 74:46 PM MDTEF0Morgan, CO0.050
July 74:49 PM MDTEF1Morgan, CO0.050
July 74:51 PM MDTEF0Morgan, CO0.050

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.