DENVER — The National Weather Service (NWS) out of Boulder has released the EF Scale ratings for two of the four tornadoes that tore across Colorado's eastern plains on Sunday afternoon.
According to the preliminary data the organization shared on social media, a NWS Storm Survey Team analyzed the damage and determined that the tornadoes in the Bennett area and Elkhorn Ranch neighborhood area in northwest Elbert County were both rated EF2. Luckily, nobody was seriously injured or killed in these storms.
The ratings for the other two tornadoes have not yet been released, as the NWS said it is gathering additional information about them.
In an EF2 tornado, forecasters expected to see "considerable damage," with roofs torn off, homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees uprooted or broken and tossed cars.
The NWS detailed the rating scale in a social media post, as shared below.
On Sunday evening, the NWS published data from its trained storm spotters, which indicated four different tornadoes:
- 1:08 p.m.-1:17 p.m.: A tornado touched down about 2.5 miles southeast of the Aurora Reservoir in the area of the Elkhorn Ranch neighborhood
- 1:28 p.m.-1:34 p.m.: A tornado was on the ground near the intersection of Airline Road and S. Lookout Hill Street.
- 1:37 p.m. (unknown end time): A tornado touched the ground near Schumaker Road and Highway 36
- 1:43 p.m.-1:58 p.m.: A tornado was seen about 2.5 miles northeast of Bennett
The exact paths or widths of these tornadoes is not yet available, but an official report is expected to hold this information.
Dozens of homes were reportedly damaged across Adams, Arapahoe and Elbert counties on Sunday. Officials told Denver7 at least 19 were damaged or destroyed near Elizabeth and at least 17 were in similar shape around Bennett.
Tornado warnings were initially in place for some Denver metro counties and parts of the eastern plains starting around 2 p.m. They continued for a couple hours, with some then expiring and others being downgraded to a tornado watch into the early evening hours.
Elbert County Commissioner Byron McDaniel, who was one of the first to drive into the Elkhorn Ranch neighborhood after the storm had passed, signed an emergency declaration for the county on Monday to help with the rebuilding.
"This is not something that we normally see in Elbert County, so it's highly unusual for this area," he told us.
In the aftermath, many people reached out to Scripps News Denver asking why they had not received any alerts or warnings about the storm. We brought those questions to officials.
Watch our Monday report on the lack of alerts amid Sunday's storms in the video below.
Juliet Madsen, interim director of emergency management for Elbert County, confirmed no CodeRED or reverse 911 alerts were sent because they were not expecting a tornado — just a bad storm or two. Elbert County does not have a siren or other audible alarm.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office said a Code Red Alert was sent to residents.
With cuts to staffing at National Weather Service offices across the country, we asked if this played a role in Sunday's alerts. Bernie Meier, a meteorologist in the Boulder office, told us that they were prepared for the storm and "saw the event coming and we had enough people in here staffed up."
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