Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2025
Unrated tornado, Kit Carson, Colorado, May 23, 2025
This Unrated tornado ran 0.5 miles across Cheyenne County on May 23, 2025, touching down at 7:27 PM MDT and reaching 15 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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 23, 2025
- Touchdown
- 7:27 PM MDT (01:27 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:33 PM MDT (01:33 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 15 yards (14 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Cheyenne County
- Touchdown point
- 38.761, -102.787
- Lift-off point
- 38.759, -102.778
- Record number
- 2505231927-01
What the Weather Service recorded
On the afternoon of the 23rd, a few low precipitation supercells form in eastern Colorado and proceeded to the east, before turning to the southeast. As these storms turned to the southeast, they quickly intensified and began producing hail up to 2.75 inches. A brief tornado was also reported south of Kit Carson.
Off duty NWS employee and other storm chaser live stream shows tornado ongoing. EM called and confirmed tornado just south of town.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the tornado touched down, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Goodland, KS wrote its last area forecast discussion before the tornado touched down at May 23, 5:23 PM MDT, 2 hours 4 minutes earlier. Its key messages:
- Severe thunderstorms are possible across western part of the area Friday afternoon and early evening. Thunderstorms capable of producing very large hail, damaging winds and perhaps a tornado are expected.
- Another round of severe weather is forecast after midnight into early Saturday morning, primarily over NW KS. Main threat will be very large hail.
- Areas of fog will likely develop late Friday night and persist through Saturday morning. The fog may be dense at times.
- Thunderstorm chances continue through the weekend. Some severe storms will be possible, but confidence in details such as location, intensity and timing are low at this time.
Area forecast discussion, May 23, 5:23 PM MDT, 2 hours 4 minutes before
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Goodland KS 523 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025 .KEY MESSAGES... - Severe thunderstorms are possible across western part of the area Friday afternoon and early evening. Thunderstorms capable of producing very large hail, damaging winds and perhaps a tornado are expected. - Another round of severe weather is forecast after midnight into early Saturday morning, primarily over NW KS. Main threat will be very large hail. - Areas of fog will likely develop late Friday night and persist through Saturday morning. The fog may be dense at times. - Thunderstorm chances continue through the weekend. Some severe storms will be possible, but confidence in details such as location, intensity and timing are low at this time. && .SHORT TERM /THROUGH SATURDAY/... Issued at 229 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025 Latest satellite data shows clearing over far East CO, with overcast sky to the east. Overhead an upper level short wave trough was over the western cloud edge. This temperature difference should serve to enhance the temperature gradient along the frontal boundary. Surface winds also show some convergence along the western cloud edge. For the afternoon am anticipating storms forming along the western edge of the clouds, the question is where will the cloud edge be. During the latter half of the afternoon low level and mid level helicity increase over Yuma County, extending southeast along the frontal boundary. Meanwhile an upper level short wave trough deepens over the boundary. The risk for tornadoes increases into the evening. Wind gusts to around 70 MPH may occur with any storm too. By mid evening or so storms should become more elevated. The first round of storms should move southeast of the forecast area around midnight, if not before. Overnight the low level jet nose strengthens over the forecast area. Elevated CAPE forms along this feature after midnight, along with low CINH. RAP and NAM models disagree with the placement of the elevated CAPE. Current forecast is a mixture of the two. Storm chances may be on the high side, however wherever storms form am thinking there should be a group/line of them. These storms may produce hail up to baseball size, however two inch hail would seem more likely for a maximum size. These storms should shift out of the forecast area by 7 AM CT. Have moderate confidence these storms will form. Fog will form overnight, lasting into Saturday morning, with visibility improving toward late morning. Saturday the forecast area will be in the cooler air behind the cold front. This will be a similar pattern to tonight, with elevated thunderstorms being a possibility. The upper level pattern is not as favorable during the morning as Friday night will be for elevated storms. Therefore, confidence is on the low side. If storms do form overnight they should be east of the forecast area by 10 AM CT. Toward late afternoon a deeper upper level short wave trough should move in from the west. This may allow for more elevated storms to form over the forecast area. && .LONG TERM /SATURDAY NIGHT THROUGH FRIDAY/... Issued at 229 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025 Saturday night a low level jet nose forms over the forecast area. Elevated CAPE looks to still be in place, and there this rather deep saturated layer in place. Am thinking the models are a bit high with the precipitation chances due to accounting for drizzle instead of rain. However, the broad lift over the forecast area does give more confidence in higher chances for precipitation actually happening. Active weather pattern continues into the workweek as a long wave trough moves onto the Plains. Toward mid week the long wave trough turns into a closed low over the Northern Plains. South of the closed low, the westerly flow is in a favorable position to send upper level short wave troughs over the forecast area. && .AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z SATURDAY/... Issued at 523 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025 Showers and thunderstorms will be in the vicinity of KGLD this evening. Current thinking is that the storms will not go directly over the airport but lightning would be in the vicinity. During the overnight fog is expected to develop over both KGLD and KMCK. Data suggests that KGLD will be in fog throughout the day, so at this point we'll keep fog in the TAF. KMCK does look to mix during the early afternoon dissipating the fog, but the low clouds are expected to persist. IFR and MVFR conditions are expected during the forecast period. && .GLD WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... KS...None. CO...None. NE...None. && SHORT TERM...JTL LONG TERM...JTL AVIATION...PUB
Hazardous weather outlook, May 23, 2:37 PM MDT, 4 hours 50 minutes before
Hazardous Weather Outlook National Weather Service Goodland KS 237 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025 COZ090>092-KSZ001>004-013>016-027>029-041-042-NEZ079>081-242045- Yuma-Kit Carson-Cheyenne-Rawlins-Decatur-Norton-Sherman-Thomas- Sheridan-Graham-Wallace-Logan-Gove-Greeley-Wichita-Dundy-Hitchcock- Red Willow- 237 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025 /337 PM CDT Fri May 23 2025/ This hazardous weather outlook is for extreme southwest Nebraska... northwest Kansas and east central Colorado. .DAY ONE...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT... There is a slight risk for severe thunderstorms across the area beginning this afternoon and continuing tonight. Storms are expected to develop after 3 PM MT in Northeast Colorado and the Tri-border area, then move southeast into Northwest Kansas between 4 and 8 PM MT. Any storm that develops during this time will be capable of producing hail up to baseball size, damaging winds around 70 MPH, and perhaps a tornado or two. The favorable area for tornadoes to form will be Yuma County area from 5 to 7 PM MT. Overnight, a few severe storms will be possible, mainly over Northwest Kansas, which could produce large hail. There is low confidence for the strongest storms to produce hail up to baseball size overnight. Areas of fog will likely develop late tonight. The fog may be dense at times. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH FRIDAY... Areas of fog will persist into Saturday morning with dense fog possible. Thunderstorm chances continue through the weekend. Some severe storms will be possible, but confidence in details such as location, intensity and timing are low at this time. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation will be needed this afternoon and tonight. JTL
In the hours before
Local storm report, May 23, 6:25 PM MDT, 1 hour 2 minutes before
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</html>Local storm report, May 23, 7:27 PM MDT, 0 minutes before
Preliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Goodland KS
727 PM MDT Fri May 23 2025
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0726 PM Funnel Cloud 1 E Kit Carson 38.76N 102.78W
05/23/2025 Cheyenne CO Storm Chaser
funnel cloud seen on chasers live stream.
&&
TriggThe 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.
Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z
1.5 hours before the tornado, 275 km from the path. May 24, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1054 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -196 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1366 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1070 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 104 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 194 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.0 K/km
Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z
10.5 hours after it, 275 km from the path. May 24, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 444 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -376 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1500 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -6 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 187 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.6 K/km
The surface observations
Burlington (ITR), 69 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Goodland radar (KGLD), 115 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:25 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 2025 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 23, 2025
2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.