Summary

I had plans at Rocky Mountain National Park this day so didn't chase. Leaving the park through Longmont, CO I saw a nice cinnamon roll updraft on a storm just north of town but it wasn't even severe warned at the time so I passed it by as I needed to get home. I noted a wall cloud with significant rotation becoming well-defined in my rear view mirror and by the time I could turn the car around a funnel was dropping. I observed the tornado at a distance but it was an unexpected consolation for having to miss the multiple photogenic tornadoes from another storm near Simla, CO. The tornado was rated EF3 with a path length of 6 miles and a maximum width of 1/4 mile.

This was an unusual tornado. It began at 6:30 PM approximately 3 miles south of Berthoud, then tracked to the west-northwest! Back in 2008 a much more widely known tornado occurred nearby. The Windsor tornado began around 11:30 AM (early!) near Gilcrest and also had an oddball track: 24 miles to the north-northwest.

EF3 tornado

EF3 tornado

EF3 tornado