EF1 damage found during Damage Survey for the April 22nd 2010 Southeast Colorado Tornado Outbreak

Overview

On Thursday, April 22, 2010, strong to severe thunderstorms developed across parts of the southeastern Colorado plains and lasted through the afternoon. The most dangerous thunderstorms were across Otero, Bent, and Kiowa Counties. Several tornadoes were reported with one supercell thunderstorm from south of the John Martin Reservoir in Bent County to northwest of Eads in Kiowa County.

A National Weather Service Damage Survey was conducted on Friday, April 23rd by the NWS Pueblo, Colorado office. The area shaded in red in the image above (click it to enlarge) was extensively surveyed. Interviews with Law Enforcement, Emergency Service personnel, and storm chasers were conducted, and photographic evidence was gathered from the general public and storm chasers.

One NWS storm chaser claimed to have seen twelve separate circulations on the ground in eastern Colorado.

Recall, that the EF Scale, which rates tornadoes, is a DAMAGE scale. Therefore, if the tornado does not damage anything, no matter how big it is, and no matter how fast the winds may be, it is assigned an EF0 rating. With that in mind, all the the tornadoes which are eventually logged, will carry a rating of EF0, with the exception of one.

With one tornado in south central Kiowa County, a small (15 foot x 30 foot), Depression-era barn was completely destroyed. At that spot, that tornado was given a preliminary ratings of EF1 with estimated winds around 100 mph.

Tornado Investigation Area

Photos & Video
Radar
Environment

Photos & Video:

Various Photos of Damage and a Photo of the Tornado


Livestock Tank Lofted into a Fence	Destroyed Barn; Looking South-Southwest	Looking Southeast	Looking Northwest

Boards from the Small Barn that was Destroyed	A Board from the Barn, Driven into the Ground	Vegetation Lofted onto the Powerlines	Debris Scattered on County Road H

Photo Taken by a Kiowa County Deputy of the Tornado

Radar:

Header


Radar Reflectivity Volume Scan of the Tornado Outbreak Event	Radar Velocity Volume Scan of the Tornado Outbreak Event

Environment

A closed upper-level low centered over the Western United States enables a desired synoptic set-up for severe weather over southeastern Colorado. Starting from the surface analysis, there is south-to-southeastern flow with nearly saturated air across the CWA, which will enable upslope flow up the Arkansas River Valley and the Palmer Divide. At 850-hPa, there are winds around 20-30 knots, directed towards southeastern Colorado with origins from the Gulf of Mexico. There was plenty of low-level moisture to fuel the thunderstorms. Moving even further up in the atmosphere, the 700-hPa and 500-hPa winds continue to shear towards the southwest. The sheared profile is also observed on the 2010 April 22nd 1200 UTC observed sounding from DNR and DDC. DDC (to PUB's east) illustrates optimal wind shear (both direction and shear) to produce long lived supercells, whereas DNR illustrates some directional shear and some speed shear. Unfortunately, PUB isn't an upper-air site, so interpolation is needed between DNR and DDC. Finally, at 300-hPa, there is implied upper-level divergence, indicative of rising air over the region and an area of difluence is located over southeastern Colorado.


Surface Analysis	850-hPa Analysis	700-hPa Analysis	500-hPa Analysis	300-hPa Analysis

Nearby Upper-Air Soundings


Sounding from WFO BOU at 4/22/2010 at6:00 AM MDT	Sounding from WFO DDC at 4/22/2010 at 6:00 AM MDT

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