Akron, CO tornado(es): what the heck happened last night?

mkavulich

EF0
Joined
Jun 9, 2010
Messages
26
Location
Boulder, CO
Watching the storm reports along with ASOS reports last night was...amusing, to say the least. First a few tornado reports came in from northeast Colorado between 7 and 8 pm; this was suspect given that surface temperatures were in the 40s, but near such a strong cold front I've seen stranger things happen.

But then, another tornado report came in at 8:51 local time for just west of Akron, CO, when the front had already passed and surface temps were in the 30s, dewpoints near 20, and snow in the area. I found this to be quite unbelievable, but there were several large wind gusts reported around the same time, so I didn't completely discount a freak occurrence.

And then THESE reports started rolling in overnight.

Needless to say, I'm pretty much suspect of everything reported from there yesterday. Was anyone around there yesterday evening that can shed light on the situation?
 
That report was 7:51, not 8 (MDT) so temps may have been a bit higher (Akron temp at 7 was around 60) Still, i found it a bit puzzling as well--not that there couldn't be a tornado while it was snowing just to the north... Im gonna see if i can dig up any more info--without photos/video it seems a bit suspect.
 
Stan Rose said:
That report was 7:51, not 8 (MDT)
Click to expand...

The report is: "0251 8 W AKRON WASHINGTON CO 4016 10336"

Northeast Colorado is UTC-6; that's 8:51 local time. The Akron report from that time is "SPECI KAKO 090251Z AUTO 02043G50KT 6SM -SN SCT007 BKN022 OVC029 02/ A2945 RMK AO2 PK WND 34069/0154 WSHFT 0149 RAE14B39E48SNB14 P0012 TSNO $", which is definitely mid-30s with light thundersnow.

I think this last report was clearly wrong, but as you point out, temperatures nearby were in the 60s, so the earlier reports (7:24pm and 7:52pm) were plausible. I just think them to be unlikely, and if they did happen it was a very unusual circumstance, so I'm interested in learning some ground truth from someone who might have been there.
 
I just spoke to the folks at WFO BOU--these were legit reports according to them, and the tornadoes caused damage. I'm still somewhat skeptical without video/pics--but hey this IS Colorado and stranger things have happened. No question these were supercells--even at those times the cells were spinning in the low levels. I wouldnt expect there to be too many chasers on those cells obviously--and at night the info will be limited. Hopefully there will be some sort of survey or additional info to come to light, cause it's quite an interesting case!
 
Just FYI, the "$" sign in the METAR indicates a possible error in some part of the report. Could be a measurement error or just a failed QC/logic check.
 
I was calling that the storms that passed over Longmont was gonna spawn something out in eastern Colorado. We got a massive and powerful gust front that rolled in between 4 and 6 PM MST that eventually began to rain and then snow on us. I didn't hear anything about it until last night though, and what I did hear was that there was a farm out near Holyoke that had a large hangar/shed that collapsed due to wind damage. I can't find anything to confirm at the moment though, but if someone else does that would be great.
 
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