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.

  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 mphthis tornado

    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. 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)ExpiredProductOffice
00:51 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
01:11 UTC04:48 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchBOU
01:32 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
01:49 UTC02:24 UTCTornado WarningBOU
02:10 UTC02:46 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBOU
02:22 UTC02:38 UTCTornado 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 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.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2026-07-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2588 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 1439 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2026-07-01The 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 46 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Sterling (STK), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:35 UTC82.4500° 0 kt1009.5
00:55 UTC82.451.80° 0 kt1008.8TS
01:15 UTC82.453.60° 0 kt1007.8TS
01:35 UTC82.455.40° 0 kt1008.5TS
01:55 UTC53.653.60° 0 kt1008.5TSRA
02:15 UTC55.455.40° 0 kt1008.8-VCTSRA
02:35 UTC55.455.40° 0 kt1012.5
02:55 UTC55.455.40° 0 kt1011.2
03:15 UTC55.455.40° 0 kt1011.5
03:35 UTC60.853.60° 0 kt1011.2
03:55 UTC60.851.80° 0 kt1010.8
04:15 UTC60.853.60° 0 kt1010.5

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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
01:40 UTCTORNADO2 E North Sterling ReseLogan, CO
01:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGNorth Sterling ReservoiLogan, COCorrects previous non-tstm wnd gst report from North Sterling Reservoir. Mesonet station TT562 North Sterling.
01:45 UTCHAIL 16 S North Sterling ReseLogan, CO
01:45 UTCNON-TSTM WND GST 67North Sterling ReservoiLogan, COMesonet station TT562 North Sterling.
01:46 UTCTORNADO5 E SterlingLogan, COTornado reported 1 mile north of US 6.
01:54 UTCTSTM WND GST 743 Nw IliffLogan, COAmbient Weather Station.
02:09 UTCTSTM WND GST 674 Sw FlemingLogan, COAmbient Weather Station.
02:16 UTCHAIL 1.253 S CrookLogan, COReport from mPING: Half Dollar (1.25 in.).
02:21 UTCHAIL 110 Nw Twin ButtesLogan, 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 302:00 PM EDTEF1Lewis, NY0.6150
June 307:33 PM EDTEF0Delta, MI0.60

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.