Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2022

Unrated tornado, Amherst to Holyoke Arpt, Colorado, June 7, 2022

From Amherst to Holyoke Arpt, this Unrated tornado ran 0.0 miles across Phillips County on June 7, 2022, touching down at 5:44 PM MDT and reaching 50 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 7, 2022
Touchdown
5:44 PM MDT (23:44 UTC)
Lifted
5:45 PM MDT (23:45 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Phillips County
Touchdown point
40.740, -102.340
Lift-off point
40.740, -102.340
Record number
2206071744-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe thunderstorms through the afternoon and evening brought hail across portions of the plains, and several brief landspouts to the northeast corner. Large hail up to 2.5 inches in diameter occurred, with the largest hail in Sedgwick County.

A landspout touched down in an open field; no damage was observed.

A landspout touched down briefly in an open field; no damage was observed.

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

The warnings

30 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:14 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:20 UTC and running to 01:18 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:20 UTC01:18 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchBOU
22:58 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
23:14 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningBOU
23:41 UTC00:15 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:31 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

11.7 hours before the tornado, 123 km from the path. June 7, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2022-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 8 joules per kilogram, CIN -194, lifted condensation level 774 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 2022-06-07The 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 -94 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
8 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-194 J/kg
Surface CAPE
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
774 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-94 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
118 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 123 km from the path. June 8, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2022-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 893 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 2671 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 2022-06-08The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
893 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1563 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2671 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 162 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:43 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
23:01 UTCTORNADO1 N SedgwickSedgwick, COLANDSPOUT TORNADO ENDED AT 504 PM MDT.
23:04 UTCTSTM WND GST 763 N SedgwickSedgwick, CO
23:05 UTCTORNADO3 Ne SedgwickSedgwick, CO
23:17 UTCHAIL 2.57 Sse JulesburgSedgwick, CO
23:29 UTCHAIL 14 Nnw Marks ButteSedgwick, COHAIL LASTED APPROXIMATELY 10 MINUTES. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
23:31 UTCHAIL 0.753 W Marks ButteSedgwick, COREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
23:36 UTCHAIL 12 Nne Marks ButteSedgwick, CODELAYED REPORT VIA TWITTER. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
23:40 UTCTORNADO6 Wsw Sixteen-Mile CornPhillips, COBRIEF LANDSPOUT.
00:00 UTCHAIL 1.751 Wsw AmherstPhillips, CO
00:00 UTCHAIL 2AmherstPhillips, CODELAYED REPORT. MULTIPLE PHOTOS OF QUARTER TO 2 INCH DIAMETER HAIL FROM SOCIAL MEDIA. TIME ESTIMATED BY RADAR.
00:03 UTCHAIL 13 Se Pleasant ValleyPhillips, COREPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.).
00:05 UTCTORNADO5 Se HolyokePhillips, COBRIEF LANDSPOUT.

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

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 June 7, 2022

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 72:21 PM MDTEF1Niobrara, WY3.5225
June 75:03 PM MDTUnratedSedgwick, CO0.050
June 75:09 PM MDTUnratedSedgwick, CO0.050
June 75:30 PM MDTEF0Mora, NM0.210
June 76:09 PM MDTUnratedPhillips, CO0.050
June 76:36 PM MDTUnratedBent, CO3.425
June 76:56 PM MDTUnratedProwers, CO6.420
June 78:18 PM MDTUnratedBaca, CO6.320
June 79:42 PM CDTEF0Nuckolls, NE9.425$1.0 million
June 710:15 PM CDTEF1Republic, KS3.175
June 79:27 PM MDTUnratedBaca, CO8.120
June 711:02 PM CDTEF1Marshall, KS2.875

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.