Tornado near Colorado’s Mount Evans rates as second highest on record

[HarveyDarkey]

With its towering mountains and pristine mountain landscape, Colorado’s high country is not normally associated with tornadoes. Saturday however a rare high altitude twister appeared in the skies and touched down at the second highest altitude a tornado has ever been recorded.

The National Weather Service has confirmed the rare mountain tornado that stunned recreationalists in the area at 2:51pm Saturday, July 28. Using photos submitted by park visitors and first-hand accounts, the service said they estimated the tornado touched down 1.75 miles northeast of Mount Evans

http://www.examiner.com/article/tornado-near-colorado-s-mount-evans-rates-as-second-highest-on-record

[CanonRay]

1. Now THAT is freaky weather

we just don't worry about these things...I live at 7500 feet.

[malaise]

2. Wow!

Strange indeed

[librechik]

3. seems like every time I go up there a freak storm happens

sleet and snow in July , lightning etc. It's a windswept alpine permafrost area that is amazingly isolated--but there is an astronomy station up at the top, which was literally destroyed by high winds earlier this year. I can't find any recent photos of the site, which was only opened to humans in late May.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meyer-Womble_Observatory

[HarveyDarkey]

5. I was snowed on while camping there in August many years ago.

At least a foot of snow covered the tent and everything else. It was just over 10,000 ft.

[librechik]

6. yes--my hubby goes there to ski summer snow fields--he is seldom disappointed

[DevonRex]

4. We were out and deciding where to hike.

Everything to the west looked freakishly ominous so we stayed in a lower canyon. Good thing, too. We just got pelted with a chilly rain.

[Jamastiene]

7. I see it as the second laziest tornado on record.

It was too lazy to reach down to ground lower than the mountains like most tornadoes do. On top of that, it was only an EF-0.

I really shouldn't joke about tornadoes that way. I'm terrified of them, even more than lightning, because you can avoid being struck by lightning most of the time. If a tornado has your town's name on it, no one is safe. How can tornadoes be so beautiful and so horrible all at the same time?

K&R

[mrs_p]

8. I live as close to the foothills as possible to avoid these

looks like there is no escape.