Remembering the Windsor EF-3 tornado 16 years later

Ryan Matoush
·2 min read

(COLORADO) — Colorado is usually not well known for its destructive tornadoes, however, every now and then the atmosphere is primed to deliver one. On May 22, 2008 a violent and destructive tornado tore through the town of Windsor, Colorado. It was on the ground for over 40 minutes and caused one fatality.

The tornado would go on to be rated an EF-3 after proper damage assessments were completed. The vast majority of twisters in Colorado are rated between EF-0 and EF-1. A big reason for this is how sparsely populated portions of the state are. If a tornado doesn’t cause damage, it can’t accuarately be rated.

The tornado that hit Windsor caused significant damage.

Radar reflectivity (above) depicts a pronounced hook echo–common for almost all tornado-producing supercell thunderstorms. This tornado was unique for a couple of other different reasons though:

  • The thunderstorm was generally moving to the northwest

  • The tornado was first reported at 11:26 AM

Supercell thunderstorms–typically–move in a northeasterly direction. Not always, but usually. In the case of Windsor, the tornado took a northwesterly track. This deviant motion is not common at all, as upper air patterns usually carry the storms off to the east.

Another unique aspect of this tornado was the time of day it was reported: 11:26 a.m. Most tornadoes, especially violent ones, occur after the sun has been heating up the ground all day. Sunlight helps provide a lot of the energy for these storms to develop, and typically it takes a full days worth of heating to reach the necessary threshold.

Courtesy NWS Boulder

This tornado would carve a 39 mile path of damage with the worst destruction being reported in Windsor. Almost 300 homes were significantly damaged or destroyed and nearly $150 million in damage was reported. Winds from this tornado peaked at 165 mph.

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