Large Colorado Tornado Threatened 3 States, 2 Time Zones Simultaneously
DENVER (CBS4) - A massive supercell thunderstorm developed in extreme southeast Colorado early Saturday evening and it produced a large, rain-wrapped tornado in the extreme southeast part of Las Animas County, about 9 miles southeast of Kim. Numerous storm chasers described the twister as a large cone. Thankfully the storm was moving over open country.
Cone - Campo, CO. #cowx #wxtwitter pic.twitter.com/NgvYmAyByE
— Steven Bergey (@stevenbergey) May 30, 2021
Documented large, cone tornado earlier West of Campo, CO and even came across an abandoned house! A dream shot! #COwx pic.twitter.com/ISERCenZdS
— Aaron Rigsby (@AaronRigsbyOSC) May 30, 2021
The storm prompted a Particularly Dangerous Situation (PDS) Tornado Warning for the area. Numerous storm chasers were following the storm and making real-time reports via Twitter to the National Weather Service in Pueblo.
In addition to the size of the storm something even more unusual was the location. A point on the map where three states and two time zones meet up. Three different offices of the National Weather Service were involved with warning the public about this storm.
A Tornado Watch was in effect for southeast Colorado at the time of the storm. As the tornadic storm crossed the state lines it threatened the small town of Kenton, Oklahoma, which had a population of 5 as of 2019, according to a Google search.