The extremely dangerous heat wave continues across the East Coast and much of the South-Central U.S. today. Record high temperatures are expected for some areas especially across the Mid-Atlantic where extreme heat risk conditions reside. There is a Slight Risk (level 2 of 5) of severe thunderstorms today for the northern Mid-Atlantic into portions of southern New England. Read More >
Overview
| Mid-afternoon, Saturday, August 23rd, a powerful supercell thunderstorm spawned two tornados, one in southwest Douglas County, and the other in northeast Teller County. The tornado in Douglas County had a path length of around 1/3 mile, and did extensive tree damage in a campground and injured one man. The tornado in Teller County had a path length of around 2/3 mile, and did extensive tree damage east of Highway 67 and west of the Ridgewood subdivision...around 8 miles north-northwest of Woodland Park. Several dozen trees (with trunk diameters between 8 and 16 inches) were either snapped off or uprooted, consistent with EF1 wind damage (winds between 86 and 110 mph). See SPC EF scale page here. The tornado lifted a couple hundred feet from several houses on Ponderosa Lane. One pine rested against electrical wires on the road. The National Weather Service Doppler Radar from Pueblo showed the classic reflectivity echo of a supercell...with a hook echo showing rapid rotation near the campground in Douglas County shortly before the first tornado...The velocity display showed very rapid rotation in the vicinity of the reflectivity hook echo with winds blowing toward and away from the radar at around 50 knots...shortly after the time below...the circulation intensified to around 70 knots toward and away from the radar...coincident with the second tornado... |
 Tornado Track |
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| The Track in Teller County | The Track just south of the Douglas-Teller County Line |
Photos & Video:
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| Mesocyclone Viewed from Near the Summit of Pikes Peak | Ponderosa Pine Snapped off by the Tornado | Several Downed Trees | Damage Path of the Tornado |
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| More Downed Trees |
Radar:
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| Animated GIF of Base Reflectivity and Base Velocity |
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| Hook Echo Analyzed by KPUX | Velocity Couplet Analyzed by KPUX |
Environment
There is not a whole lot of data that favors the environment to be a tornadic event. The SPC included the entire state of Colorado in the "See Text" contour, which stated that Colorado was under advisement for general thunderstorms, but no storms that would be tornadic. The biggest hint was the moisture "bulls-eye" analyzed on the 6:00 AM MDT 700-hPa map, located below. There is a suggested shortwave trough also analyzed on the 6:00 AM MDT 700-hPa map. On the 300-hPa 6:00 AM MDT map, there is a region of upper-level divergence due to an area of diffluence, since there is an analyzed 40-knot southwesterly wind over Boulder, Colorado and an analyzed 10-knot wind analyzed over Dodge City, Kansas. The 6:00 AM MDT 500-hPa Plymouth State University map does illustrate a region of high absolute vorticity analzyed over Utah, which would advect into Colorado, meaning that there would have been differential absolute vorticity advection over the region of tornadogenesis. Once the tornado did propagate over the northwest El Paso County, it dissipated quickly, since the lower elevations were not conducive to rotating updrafts.
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| SPC Convective Outlook 6:00 AM MDT |
SPC Upper-Air Maps August 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 AM MDT
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| Surface Analysis | 850-hPa Analysis | 700-hPa Analysis |
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| 500-hPa Analysis | 300-hPa Analysis |
SPC Upper-Air Maps August 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 PM MDT
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| Surface Analysis | 850-hPa Analysis | 700-hPa A |
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| 500-hPa Analysis | 300-hPa Analysis |
Thermodynamic Profiles of the Atmosphere (Skew-T Log P Diagrams From Plymouth State University):
Soundings on August 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 AM MDT
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| KDDC Sounding | KDNR Sounding |
Soundings on August 23rd, 2008 at 6:00 PM MDT
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| KDDC Sounding | KDNR Sounding |
500-hPa Absolute Vorticity Plot at 6:00 AM MDT (From Plymouth State University)
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| Absolute Vorticity Plotted over the Southwest United States |
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