June is Colorado's most active month for tornadoes. Our state sees a high number of a special type of tornado called a landspout. As usual, a lot of that has to do with the mountains.
A supercell is a thunderstorm that spins. The storm's updraft - essentially the entire storm rotates. These powerful storms can then stretch that rotation to the ground. This produces a supercell tornado.
Landspout tornadoes typically form when a boundary causes air to come together underneath a cloud at the same time that there's some rotation in the lowest part of the sky.
That rotation then gets pulled up into the cloud, forming a landspout. They do not form from a supercell thunderstorm.
Eastern Colorado is one of a few places in the country to see a lot of landspouts. Air coming off the mountains tends to bounce around and spin as it rolls over the terrain.
At the same time, we often have small-scale boundaries that form in the eastern plains.
This special blend of spinning air near the ground and these mini boundaries is the perfect setup for landspouts.
Landspouts are usually weaker and shorter-lasting than supercell tornadoes. But occasionally, they're still strong. Two EF-2 tornadoes this May were landspouts according to the National Weather Service. Because they form through very small-scale weather patterns, they're harder to predict than the supercell tornado type.
And June is the peak of tornado season in Colorado. The Storm Prediction Center says the state averages 14 tornadoes in June. Other data sources cite 12 to 17 as the average - depending on which dataset they used. I'm citing the SPC because their figure is a 25 year average through 2024, which is more up to date than sources using a data set ending in 2012.
Ultimately, it's Colorado's unique geography that leads to the high number of landspout tornadoes. And since we're in peak tornado season - it's important to keep in mind landspouts are still tornadoes, and while they're not always strong...they can be. So, it's important to have a plan in place in the event you're under a Tornado Warning, or you see a tornado.
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