Teller County Microbursts - late evening May 8th

Teller County microbursts Friday evening May 8th...

During the evening of May 8th a severe thunderstorm produced damage just north of Cripple Creek in Teller County.

The Warning Coordination Meteorologist from the National Weather Service Office in Pueblo traveled to the scene early Saturday morning.

It was determined that at an elevation of 9500 feet, two microbursts occurred side-by-side and rushed down the side of an east-west valley, then traveled up the north slope of the valley. The largest microburst knocked down scores of pine and aspen trees on the side of a valley.

On the other side of the valley, aspens were laid down. The damage path width was around a quarter mile. A trailer was damaged when the aspens laid down on it...

The microbursts combined, and raced up the north side of the valley, and it was constricted by a very narrow valley. The winds accelerated, and uprooted over a dozen trees and snapped off several others...

The only damage to a house and mobile home on the north side of the valley was a power line being ripped out of the side of the house. Lighter-weight objects were tossed around, and some snapped off trees fell onto a couple trucks, causing minor damage. The width of the damage path on the north side of the valley was around 200 yards.

The damage was consistent with EF0 and EF1 winds on the EF Scale. Estimated wind speeds were around 90 mph.

-submitted by Tom Magnuson, WCM, WFO Pueblo