Dangerous Heat Wave Continues; Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain from the Central Plains to the Midwest

A prolonged, dangerous heat wave will continue today in the Midwest and Mississippi Valley, and persist through the Independence Day weekend across the Ohio Valley, Mid-South, and East Coast. Severe thunderstorm are expected from the northern/central Plains to the Mid-Atlantic. Isolated slash flooding is possible from the central Plains to the Upper Midwest. Read More >

Overview

During the early to mid afternoon hours of July 30th, 2025, two high altitude tornadoes would develop, one in Teller Counter, and another in Custer County. The pattern was overall amorphous, with broad southwesterly flow in the upper levels, and weak ridging in the mid levels. Overall the pattern was not overly conducive to tornadoes, but weather did it anyways. Perhaps there was some misoscale/terrain influences that helped these tornadoes develop.

Tornado
Radar
Environment

Tornadoes

Tornado - July Teller County Tornado
Teller County

Date	07/30/25
Time (Local)	1:55-2:01 PM
EF Rating	EF-1
Est. Peak Winds	110 MPH
Path Length	0.80 Miles
Max Width	75 Yards
Injuries/Deaths	0/0
Summary: A damage assessment was performed on 8/4/2025 after delayed reports of extensive tree damage was discovered WSW of Woodland Park, Colorado. At 1:55PM a tornado touched down 6 miles WSW of Woodland Park. During the survey widespread tree damage was surveyed with the primary damage indicated being uprooted softwood trees with an occasional snapped softwood tree. The path of the tornado was clear as there were trees oriented in a cyclonic pattern. Near the end of the damage path the tornado made surveying inaccessible do to the amount of trees mangled over one another, as well as the topographic grade in which the tornado followed.

Track Map EF-Scale


Tree Damage from the start of the tornado track.	Tree Damage from the middle of the tornado track.	Tree Damage from the end of the tornado track.	Tree Damage from the end of the tornado track.

Tornado - Wet Mountain Valley Tornado
Custer County

Date	07/30/25
Time (Local)	3:10-3:15 PM
EF Rating	EF-0
Est. Peak Winds	85 MPH
Path Length	0.34 Miles
Max Width	20 Yards
Injuries/Deaths	0/0
Summary: A virtual damage survey was conducted for the landspout tornado that developed 7 miles southwest of Westcliffe, Colorado. The Custer County Emergency Manager and the Custer County Sheriff's Office provided adequate pictures and locations to perform the survey virtually. The extent of the damage was 3 electrical transmission lines (ETL) that had visible damage and they were slightly leaned. The ETLs were clearly old, so the structural integrity are at question, so we've decided to go with a high end EF-0 with wind speeds of 85 MPH.

Track Map


Image of broken electrical transmission line.	Image of snapped electrical transmission line being repaired.

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph

Radar


Loop of radar reflectivity and velocity of the July Teller County Tornado.	Image of radar reflectivity and velocity of the July Teller County Tornado.	Loop of radar reflectivity and velocity of the Wet Mountain Valley Tornado.	Image of radar reflectivity and velocity of the Wet Mountain Valley Tornado.

Environment

An amorphous synoptic pattern was in place, with modest southwesterly flow in the upper levels, and weak ridging in the mid levels.


Figure 1: 300mb pattern at 2 PM MDT July 30th.	Figure 2: 500mb pattern at 2 PM MDT July 30th.	Figure 3: 700mb pattern at 2 PM MDT July 30th.

The overall mesoscale environment was also not overly supportive of tornadoes this day. Instability was on the lower end, with MLCAPE between 500-1000 J/kg, and effective shear was weak, with less than 30 knots being resolved over the area. The SCP and STP were also low across the area. Despite this, the weather still produced two tornadoes, possibly from misoscale and terrain influences in their respective locations.


Figure 4: Surface pattern at 2 PM MDT July 30th.	Figure 5: Effective Bulk Shear at 2 PM MDT July 30th.	Figure 6: Effective SRH at 2 PM MDT July 30th.


Figure 7: Mixed Layer CAPE at 2 PM MDT July 30th.	Figure 8: Supercell Composite (SCP) at 2 PM MDT July 30th.	Figure 9: Significant Tornado Parameter (STP) at 2 PM MDT July 30th.


Figure 10: RAP sounding of environment for the July Teller County Tornado	Figure 11: RAP sounding of environment for the Wet Mountain Valley Tornado

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Dangerous Heat Wave Continues; Severe Thunderstorms and Heavy Rain from the Central Plains to the Midwest

30 July 2025 Teller and Custer County Tornadoes