Thursday, August 02, 2012

Colorado High Tornado Breaks Record


The non-supercell tornado, also known as a "land spout," formed due to a large mass of warm, moist air encountering colder air higher up.
The twister touched down at 11,900 feet (3,627 meters), making it the second-highest tornado ever recorded in American history.

Most of the time, Chris Kirby chases storms, but sometimes they come to him. During a drive through the mountains this Saturday afternoon (July 28) near his home in Aurora, Colo., to photograph mountain goats and test radio equipment, he got quite a surprise: a rare, high-elevation tornado.

Kirby, who's a registered storm-spotter with the National Weather Service (NWS), took a photo of the thin twister as it briefly touched down on the side of Mount Evans, he told OurAmazingPlanet. He sent his picture to weather service staff, who used maps and line-of-sight analysis to determine that the twister touched down at 11,900 feet (3,627 meters), making it the second-highest tornado ever recorded in American history, said David Barjenbruch, a meteorologist with the NWS in Boulder.

"The funnel briefly touched down on a ridge, just enough to be deemed a tornado," Kirby said. "I'm blessed to have seen such an extremely rare phenomenon."

The highest twister ever recorded was photographed by a hiker at 12,000 feet (3,658 m) in California's Sequoia National Park on July 7, 2004, Barjenbruch told OurAmazingPlanet.

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