Editor’s note: This story was updated Tuesday afternoon after the National Weather Service confirmed the Monday tornado.
Preliminary results from tornado near DeWeese Reservoir, north of Westcliffe. EF0, no injuries, estimated 70 MPH max wind, 1/2 mile long path up to 25 yards wide. Minor structure damage.
— NWS Pueblo (@NWSPueblo)
Yes, tornadoes can take place in high-elevation areas, and Monday provided an example of one.
A tornado-warned thunderstorm moved through Custer County west of Pueblo on Monday afternoon, producing several funnel clouds and a tornado. While the tornado was not confirmed to have touched down by the National Weather Service until Tuesday, visuals appeared to confirm that a tornado took place near Westcliffe on Monday afternoon.
COLORADO 🌪TWISTER🌪 REPORTED:
Some of the damage left behind from what was most likely a tornado near Colorado this evening. Reports of power poles snapped, gas lines leaking -Sheriff
Darwin Smith= damage 📸
Funnel cloud 📸 = Dena Smith Woods
— Matt Kroschel (@Matt_Kroschel)
The storm produced damage, including downed power lines and a possible gas leak, . While tornadoes are less common in mountainous terrain, they can happen. Westcliffe is about 8,000 feet in elevation, sitting at the base of the Wet Mountains.
Based on the storm’s visuals, Monday’s tornado was probably a so-called landspout tornado. These are narrow columns of air created by atmospheric stretching, and these types of typically weaker and shorter-lived tornadoes are notoriously difficult to predict. That said, Colorado is known for having landspouts due to terrain- and topography-induced wind boundaries.
, this is only the eighth confirmed tornado to have touched down in Custer County, the last coming in 2007. No injuries have been officially reported from a Custer County tornado.
Tornado surveys — which confirm whether or not a tornado actually took place — are usually conducted a day or two after a possible touchdown.
This is the first high-elevation tornado of 2019, .
