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Mount Evans twister was the second-highest ever in U.S.
If you saw the tornado on Mount Evans, please email us at news@outtherecolorado.com. We expect summer storms and lightning, but a tornado? Wow, we'd love to see and hear more about that.
Meteorologists have confirmed the tornado that broke out Saturday on Mount Evans is the second-highest ever recorded in the U.S.
The twister formed around 3 p.m. Saturday at 11,900 feet, above timberline, and did no damage. Mountain tornadoes are rare in Colorado and generally weak and short-lived.
Click here to see reader-submitted photos of the twister.
"It's not unheard of," said Bob Glancy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. "But, we do get far more tornadoes on the plains so this is unusual. What makes it so interesting is that it's so high."
The highest reported tornado, Glancy said, appears to be a 2004 tornado that touched down in California's Sequoia National Park over Rockwell Pass at more than 12,000 feet.
In 1987 a tornado in Wyoming crossed the Continental Divide at an estimated 10,000 feet.
Glancy said Colorado has seen a few mountain tornadoes, including one in the 1970s reported near Pikes Peak.
Scientists determined the elevation from witness accounts and photos, since it is difficult to identify tornadoes on radar at that elevation.
