Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2025

Unrated tornado, Flagler to Flagler Arpt, Colorado, September 9, 2025

From Flagler to Flagler Arpt, this Unrated tornado ran 0.0 miles across Kit Carson County on September 9, 2025, touching down at 3:42 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
September 9, 2025
Touchdown
3:42 PM MDT (21:42 UTC)
Lifted
3:43 PM MDT (21:43 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
Kit Carson County
Touchdown point
39.097, -103.070
Lift-off point
39.097, -103.070
Record number
2509091542-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms developed over East Central Colorado during the afternoon and evening. Hail up to golfball size was reported at Burlington. A nearly stationary thunderstorm south of Flagler produced a landspout tornado.

Picture of a landspout tornado. Estimated location based on chaser description. No damage was reported. No duration was given for the tornado.

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 20:53 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:53 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchGLD
21:27 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
21:54 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
22:23 UTC01:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryGLD
22:42 UTC23:17 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
23:53 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
01:05 UTC01:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGLD
02:48 UTC05:45 UTCFlood AdvisoryGLD

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 19:40 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 radar

The Pueblo radar (KPUX), 120 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:41 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
21:42 UTCLANDSPOUT14 S FlaglerKit Carson, CODelayed report via social media. Possible landspout at the radar estimated location at time reported by the storm chaser. Chaser was looking from roughly 15 miles NW of Kit Carson.

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

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

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.