Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 2026
EF1 tornado, Sterling to Iliff, Colorado, June 30, 2026
From Sterling to Iliff, this EF1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Logan County on June 30, 2026, touching down at 8:30 PM MDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.
Preliminary. This is NWS BOU's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Iliff TOR. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.
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 mphthis tornado
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.
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 survey
- Rating, as surveyed
- EF1, preliminary
- Date
- June 30, 2026
- Touchdown
- 8:30 PM MDT (02:30 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:33 PM MDT (02:33 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Logan County
- Touchdown point
- 40.753, -103.061
- Lift-off point
- 40.754, -103.059
- Highest wind the damage implies
- 105 mph
- Surveyed by
- NWS BOU
- The office's name for it
- Iliff TOR
- Survey last edited
- July 1, 2026
- Record number
- None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.
What the survey found
Quick moving tornado, embedded within a larger area of stronger straightline winds, moved through Iliff, CO right around 830 PM MDT on June 30, 2026. One vacant single wide home was heavily damaged by the swirling winds before lifting to the northeast of town.
Written by NWS BOU in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.
The damage survey
1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BOU, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 105 mph.
- Vacant manufactured home was rolled and heavily damaged.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
What the Weather Service recorded
A supercell thunderstorm produce 2 tornadoes severe hail and wind gusts up to 74 mph.
Tornado reported 1 mile north of US 6. Brief touch down over an open field.
A quick moving tornado, embedded within a larger area of stronger straightline winds, moved through Iliff, CO right around 830 PM MDT on June 30, 2026. One vacant single-wide home was heavily damaged by the swirling winds before lifting to the northeast of |town.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
8 minutes of warning. NWS BOU issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:22 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:38 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:11 UTC and running to 04:48 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:51 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
| 01:11 UTC | 04:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | BOU |
| 01:32 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
| 01:49 UTC | 02:24 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
| 02:10 UTC | 02:46 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | BOU |
| 02:22 UTC | 02:38 UTC | Tornado Warning | BOU |
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 01:06 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.
N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z
2.5 hours before the tornado, 211 km from the path. July 1, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2588 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -55 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2429 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1439 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 95 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.0
- Supercell composite
- 7.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.6 K/km
The surface observations
Sterling (STK), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:35 UTC | 82.4 | 50 | 0° 0 kt | 1009.5 | ||
| 00:55 UTC | 82.4 | 51.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1008.8 | TS | |
| 01:15 UTC | 82.4 | 53.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1007.8 | TS | |
| 01:35 UTC | 82.4 | 55.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1008.5 | TS | |
| 01:55 UTC | 53.6 | 53.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1008.5 | TSRA | |
| 02:15 UTC | 55.4 | 55.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1008.8 | -VCTSRA | |
| 02:35 UTC | 55.4 | 55.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1012.5 | ||
| 02:55 UTC | 55.4 | 55.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 03:15 UTC | 55.4 | 55.4 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.5 | ||
| 03:35 UTC | 60.8 | 53.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 03:55 UTC | 60.8 | 51.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 04:15 UTC | 60.8 | 53.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1010.5 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 153 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:28 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01:40 UTC | TORNADO | 2 E North Sterling Rese | Logan, CO | |
| 01:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | North Sterling Reservoi | Logan, CO | Corrects previous non-tstm wnd gst report from North Sterling Reservoir. Mesonet station TT562 North Sterling. |
| 01:45 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 S North Sterling Rese | Logan, CO | |
| 01:45 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 67 | North Sterling Reservoi | Logan, CO | Mesonet station TT562 North Sterling. |
| 01:46 UTC | TORNADO | 5 E Sterling | Logan, CO | Tornado reported 1 mile north of US 6. |
| 01:54 UTC | TSTM WND GST 74 | 3 Nw Iliff | Logan, CO | Ambient Weather Station. |
| 02:09 UTC | TSTM WND GST 67 | 4 Sw Fleming | Logan, CO | Ambient Weather Station. |
| 02:16 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 3 S Crook | Logan, CO | Report from mPING: Half Dollar (1.25 in.). |
| 02:21 UTC | HAIL 1 | 10 Nw Twin Buttes | Logan, CO |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 30, 2026
2 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.
Sources
NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.