National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Overview

 

An intense low pressure system brought an extended period of high impact weather to the region throughout the day on April 22nd. This system brought nearly every kind of hazardous weather to the region including numerous wind driven wildfires, widespread damaging winds, blowing dust, severe thunderstorms with large hail and several tornadoes to the Tri-State area.  The following image is an analysis of weather balloon data taken at 6 PM MDT on April 22nd at a constant pressure of 850 mb (near the surface in eastern Colorado but rising higher in the atmosphere as elevation decreases). These two images not only show the scale of the system that impacted the region, but also indicates how much the low pressure system intensified through the day.  As the storm intensified, winds just off the surface increased to over 70 mph, resulting in widespread damaging wind gusts through the evening.

 

April 22nd 850 MB Observations and Analysis at 6 AM

Image from the Storm Prediction Center

April 22nd 850 MB Observations and Analysis at 6 PM

Image from the Storm Prediction Center

 

This increase in low level wind speeds not only brought widespread damaging winds, the created a shear profile favorable for tornadoes. As a cold front began to move through the area in the late evening, a line of strong thunderstorms developed in advance of it. While thunderstorms forming into a line often signal that the threat will transition to high winds, the orientation of the front with respect to the strong low level winds created an environment where several short lived tornadoes developed and moved rapidly along the line of storms.

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