PIKES PEAK– A huge storm hit Pikes Peak on Thursday afternoon, The National Weather Service confirmed it was a tornado.
On Friday, meteorologist Stephen Rodriguez with the National Weather Service in Pueblo surveyed the storm damage alongside the Pikes Peak Highway.
“The damage that we saw was that many uprooted trees snapped trees in the way that they were oriented, kind of more of a divergent, divergent pattern," said Rodriguez. "Kind of lending us to believe that it was tornadic damage.”
Visitors driving up and down Pikes Peak could see the fallen trees from their car. Massive aspen and pine trees are now laying on their sides, branches snapped in half and tree roots ripped from the ground, all because of a tornado.
It is estimated that the tornado was anywhere between 50 to 75 yards wide and the top speed was 108 miles per hour. The estimated damage to the forest land is nearly 2 miles long.
Despite a common myth, tornadoes can touch down in high country.
“We think of mountains that may not be the first thing you think about, tornadoes," said Rodriguez. "We think in eastern plains the central plains, but it's not totally uncommon for them to occur across the mountains. Specifically, Teller County over the last week or two has actually had several tornado warnings issued."
Rodriguez said tornadoes and severe thunderstorms can happen anywhere in Colorado, it just has to be the perfect storm.
“It just takes the right environment to push up right against the mountains, which we saw yesterday," said Rodriguez. "That could provide an environment, a pattern that could support tornadic development.”
The National Weather Service assesses land after severe storms to help identify what type of weather event occurred. Rodriguez said they were looking to see if the damage happened because of straight line or tornadic wind.
"We're looking for more tornadic damage, more kind of focused damage, sometimes in all different directions," said Rodriguez. "The trees are kind of sheared off of the top and so that kind of allows us to determine whether it was straight line or tornadic damage."
After looking at the damage, Rodriguez concluded it was due to tornadic winds. He advises people to get off the mountain when a storm rolls in.
"It's very important that people have ways to monitor the weather, have ways to receive multiple means to receive warning information, and then once warnings are issued for the location, act appropriately, I can't stress that enough,” said Rodriguez.
No one was hurt in the storm.
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