6 High Altitude Tornado's hit Colorado on Sunday

Torandoes Tear Through mountains



Tornados in the Rocky Mountains are exceeding rare. The tornado in the photo above happened 2012 on Mt. Evans over 14,000 feet high. It's one of three tornadoes we know of since 1992 that formed on one of Colorado's 14ers.



Why it's so unlikely to see a tornado in the high country is simple to explain
All things being equal, for every thousand feet gained in elevation there is roughly a 3°F drop in temperature. Colder air at the surface is inherently more stable, and thus colder high elevation landscapes are more stable.

Also high altitude wind events tend to rip apart the cloud rotation necessary to form tornadoes here.



With that being said 6 of the 8 tornados that touched down in Colorado yesterday, Sunday 6/8/2014 occurred above 8,000 feet!

Now I'm no weather expert, but even I know having one tornado touchdown in the mountains every few years is kind of expected. Having 6 in one day is unprecedented! Unheard of!

Granted they were nowhere near as strong at the ones they get in OK or KS.
but it does make me pause and think to myself--- Something out of the realm of normalcy is going on here--- and I don't know what it foretells?

a reply to: HardCorps

That does seem a bit strange, but maybe there have been incidents like this in the past, and we just didn't have the spotters/technology we do now to see them?

a reply to: Euphem

you may be right.
but I would also argue that Colorado is a destination state winter and summer. Our national parks lakes and wild lands fill to near overflowing with visitors every year.

True these people are not train spotters but you would think they would at least mention seeing a tornado to someone?

I just don't know

13 tornados here in the land of enchantment as well. [new mexico]

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: olaru12

I remember as a kid driving threw Albuquerque with my dad back in the 1980's
on the radio there were reports of two tornados at the mouth of the canyon there on I40.
what made that really weird was it was snowing!

originally posted by: HardCorps
a reply to: olaru12

I remember as a kid driving threw Albuquerque with my dad back in the 1980's
on the radio there were reports of two tornados at the mouth of the canyon there on I40.
what made that really weird was it was snowing!

Are you sure those weren't dust devil tornadoes?

a reply to: Skywatcher2011

We didn't see it.
truth is we couldn't see anything more than a few feet ahead of the car.

But as we were driving west to east threw town the local radio station started doing their weather alert.
saying two snow tornado's had been spotted at the mouth of the canyon heading up into the mountains.

My dad just said screw that and we got a room for the night rather than risk an up close and personal with those tor-nadies