Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2023

Unrated tornado, Yoder, Colorado, May 26, 2023

This Unrated tornado ran 0.9 miles across El Paso County on May 26, 2023, touching down at 4:29 PM MDT and reaching 1 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
May 26, 2023
Touchdown
4:29 PM MDT (22:29 UTC)
Lifted
4:30 PM MDT (22:30 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.9 miles (1.5 km)
Path width
1 yards (1 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
El Paso County
Touchdown point
38.930, -104.230
Lift-off point
38.932, -104.213
Record number
2305261629-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Ample low level moisture aided in creating an incredibly unstable environment with enough wind shear to create severe thunderstorms and some landspout tornadoes.

There was a brief 15 to 20 second spin up along a converging outflow boundaries.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:42 UTC and running to 23:33 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:42 UTC23:33 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchPUB
21:18 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
21:28 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
21:39 UTC22:18 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
21:47 UTC23:58 UTCFlash Flood WarningPUB
22:03 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB
22:28 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPUB

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:52 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.

Grand Junction, CO (KGJT), 12:00Z

10.5 hours before the tornado, 370 km from the path. May 26, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Grand Junction, CO at 12:00Z on 2023-05-26Temperature 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 -90402, lifted condensation level 3306 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Grand Junction, CO at 12:00Z on 2023-05-26The 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 161 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
-90402 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3306 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
161 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
171 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Grand Junction, CO (KGJT), 00:00Z

1.5 hours after it, 370 km from the path. May 27, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Grand Junction, CO at 00:00Z on 2023-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -65, lifted condensation level 4463 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, Grand Junction, CO at 00:00Z on 2023-05-27The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-65 J/kg
Surface CAPE
176 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4463 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
9.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Ellicott-B Afa (ABH), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:55 UTC71.252.7130° 15 kt221018.3
21:28 UTC69.853.6130° 20 kt251017.6TS
21:32 UTC6853.6140° 17 kt251017.3-TSRA
21:48 UTC66.253.6130° 18 kt231016.6VCTS -RA
21:55 UTC66.453.8130° 17 kt231016.9VCTS -RA
22:01 UTC66.253.6 1017.3VCTS
22:24 UTC64.450150° 20 kt281016.9VCTS -RA
22:38 UTC57.250270° 13 kt221020-TSRA
22:39 UTC57.250290° 17 kt221020-TSRA
22:45 UTC53.646.4310° 13 kt221019.6+TSRA
22:50 UTC5044.6360° 8 kt1020.7+TSRA BR
22:55 UTC47.54420° 5 kt1019.6+TSRA BR
23:00 UTC5046.420° 9 kt1019.3-TSRA BR
23:11 UTC46.444.650° 11 kt1019.3VCTS -RA
23:24 UTC48.244.640° 8 kt1018.6
23:55 UTC5147.7130° 6 kt1017.9

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

The radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 53 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:31 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:48 UTCHAIL 1Colorado SpringsEl Paso, CO
22:00 UTCHAIL 14 Ene SecurityEl Paso, COTIME AND LOCATION ESTIMATED.
22:29 UTCTORNADO6 N YoderEl Paso, COBRIEF, 15-20 SECOND SPIN-UP, POSSIBLY ON CONVERGING OUTFLOW BOUNDARIES.
22:32 UTCHAIL 1ElbertElbert, CO
22:47 UTCHAIL 17 Sw CalhanEl Paso, CO

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 2023

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 262:35 PM MDTEF0Cassia, ID0.210
May 262:15 PM PDTEF0Grant, WA0.425
May 264:53 PM MDTUnratedMorgan, CO0.025
May 265:28 PM MDTUnratedTorrance, NM1.720
May 266:44 PM MDTUnratedWashington, CO0.025
May 266:45 PM MDTEF0Ada, ID0.93

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.