Rare mountain tornado strikes Park County

August 24, 3:24 PMDenver Weather ExaminerTony Hake

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Park County tornado near Eleven Mile Reservoir.
Image courtesy 7News and Jerry Bivens.

In a truly unusual weather occurence, a tornado struck near Eleven Mile Reservoir in Park County Saturday afternoon.  Certainly we are all used to hearing about twisters along the Front Range and on the plains but mountain tornadoes are quite rare - the rugged terrain usually disrupts the weather patterns necessary to product tornadoes.  Authorities estimate five vehicles were damaged including a motorhome and pickup truck camper that were overturned, a trailer was destroyed.  Beyond cuts and scrapes, thankfully no one was injured. 

Colorado is ranked ninth in the country with an average of 40 tornadoes a year.  It is interesting to note that every state in the union - including Alaska and Hawaii - have had tornadoes. 

Doing some research at the TornadoProject.com yields an interesting fact as well.  This was Park County’s first tornado ever.  That leaves 12 of Colorado’s 64 counties that have never had a tornado including:

Clear Creek
Dolores
Garfield
Gilpin
Gunnison
Hinsdale
Lake
Montrose
Ouray
San Juan
San Miguel
Summit

It does serve as a reminder that while the unofficial severe weather season is behind us, Colorado’s weather is anything but boring and everyone should be aware of all the types of weather hazards that are possible.