DENVER – It hasn’t even been a week since our state last saw snow and already, severe weather season is letting Coloradans know it’s about to pull into the driveway.
On Thursday, the National Weather Service in Boulder issued the first tornado watch of the 2024 season, impacting Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Washington and Yuma counties. It remains in effect until 9 p.m. Mountain time. At about 4 p.m., however, that watch had been extended to all of Colorado's eastern most counties.
Half an hour earlier, by around 3:29 p.m., the NWS Boulder issued its first tornado warning of the season, including Washington County, until 4 p.m. Mountain Time.
Tornado Warning including Washington County, CO until 4:00 PM MDT pic.twitter.com/q35tl3Mvqp
— NWS Boulder (@NWSBoulder) April 25, 2024
But the weather fun doesn't stop there: A landspout tornado also touched down north of Akron as the storm was moving through the Eastern Plains.
The NWS issues a tornado watch when weather conditions in an area indicate an increased risk for severe weather that may be capable of producing a tornado, according to FEMA.
A tornado warning, on the other hand, is issued when a tornado has been sighted or indicated by weather radar. A warning means you should take shelter immediately.
To underscore just how chaotic Colorado weather can be this time of year, weather forecasters in Boulder have also issued a red flag warning for southeast Elbert County below 6,000 feet and south Lincoln County until 8 p.m., as well as a winter storm watch for Colorado's high country that will be in effect starting Friday night through late Saturday night, according to the NWS. That snowstorm could drop between 6 inches and 2 feet of snow, forecasters said.
The first tornado watch of the severe weather season in 2023 was issued on May 10, which was also the date of the state's first tornado last year. Jennifer Stark, a meteorologist with the NWS in Boulder, said that tornado — an EF1 — touched down along the Morgan/Washington County line.
