Convergence boundary spawns brief landspout tornado near Buckley Space Force Base in Aurora

A convergence zone over the eastern Denver metro area spawned a thunderstorm Friday afternoon that produced a brief landspout tornado near the Buckley Space Force Base. Trained weather spotters reported the tornado to the National Weather Service in Boulder which prompted them to issue a warning.

As far as we know the touchdown was brief and in an open field with no damage reported. Copter 4 was able to get a good look at the storm as it was developing. 

A landspout tornado forms when air spinning on a horizontal axis near the ground gets tilted into the vertical by the rising air inside a developing thunderstorm. Landspout tornadoes are usually weak and short-lived and don't typically cause much damage.

Regardless, they must be treated with the same urgency as a tornado associated with a supercell thunderstorm because occasionally a landspout can grow into a much larger and more dangerous tornado.