Mile-wide tornado smashes Windsor, Colorado

[phantom power]

A mile-wide tornado swept through Colorado between 11am and noon yesterday, ripping the roofs off buildings, tossing cars into the air, and killing at least one person in Weld County, northeast of Denver. Hail up to 2.75" in diameter accompanied the storm, which took an unusual north-northwesterly track , parallel to the Rocky Mountains north of Denver. Hardest hit was the town of Windsor, between Fort Collins and Greely, where damage appeared to be at least EF3. A local TV station took some impressive live video of the tornado, and a wunderground web cam video in Windsor, Colorado (Figure 1) caught the funnel as it passed east of the camera.

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=945&tstamp=200805

[jkshaw]

1. Thanks for this,

I have family there in Fort Collins, nearly sideswiped by it. Just heard from them this morning.

[phantom power]

2. On wednesday, the weather channel was predicting a rash of long-track tornados.

I don't know how much of that prediction came true, but the forecast seemed pretty grim. I had the experience of flying over all of that last evening. Hard to assess at 35000 feet, but it sure looked like a heap of weather. Lots of anvils and lighting.

[kestrel91316]

4. Greetings from a former Ft Collinsite!

That was sure a close call. Poor Windsor.

At least it missed Greeley, too.......that could have been VERY bad. Amazingly scary video of the actual tornado......

[backscatter712]

3. Colorado resident here.

I've got family and friends in Fort Collins. Thankfully, the tornado didn't make it there. I've also got some relatives who live south of Greeley, thankfully, they didn't get hit.

Usually, the rule of thumb goes that you're mostly safe from tornadoes if you live west of I-25 - when you're close to the mountains, the terrain tends to disrupt tornado formation.

[Bob Dobbs]

5. And our Democratic Governor was on the scene immediately.

Ritter is barely a Democrat, as far as I'm concerned, but he wasted no time getting to the disaster area personally and getting aid to the people who have been devastated by this huge tornado. (Unlike another governmental executive who need not be named who couldn't be bothered by concern for Americans in a weather disaster.)

http://cw2.trb.com/news/kwgn-ritter-tour,0,5109275.story