Tornado reported at high-elevation Colorado fire

DENVER – A tornado has touched down at the edge of a high-elevation wildfire in Colorado, a doubly rare event that apparently caused no damage and had little effect on the fire.

The National Weather Service said the twister touched down at about 1:30 p.m. Thursday in Park County south of Fairplay, a central Colorado town about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above sea level.

National Weather Service meteorologist Russell Danielson said the tornado appeared to be near or on the edge of a wildfire that has burned about 43 square kilometers (17 square miles).

Danielson said tornadoes are rare at that elevation and rare at any wildfire.

He said no damage has been reported and the tornado appeared to have little or no effect on the wildfire. The area is sparsely populated.

Danielson said it’s only the sixth tornado recorded in Park County since record-keeping began in the 1950s.

Meanwhile, rain was forecast over parts of Colorado, promising some relief for firefighters but threatening to trigger flash floods on erosion-prone hillsides where trees and bushes have burned up.

Mark Wankowski, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Pueblo, said even a little rain can cause flooding on a burn scar.

A flash flood watch was in effect Thursday for a swath of Colorado just east of the mountains. Forecasters said rain is also expected in southwestern Colorado.

Forecasters differ on whether this is the start of the annual monsoon that brings rain to parts of the Southwest every summer, or if that will come later. But they said the wet weather could last through the weekend.

Dennis Phillips, a Weather Service meteorologist in Grand Junction, said the storms will be widespread so a broad area could get rain.

On the other hand, the Air Force is sending two more tanker planes to help fight massive wildfires burning in Colorado.

The military said Thursday the specially equipped C-130s will fly missions out of Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. They will join two other C-130s that started firefighting work on Monday.

A modular system of pumps and tanks is loaded into the planes’ cargo bay, allowing them to dump 3,000 gallons of water or fire retardant in 5 seconds.

The newly enlisted planes are from the Wyoming Air National Guard in Cheyenne and the Nevada Air National Guard in Reno. The two planes already on the scene are from an Air Force Reserve unit at Peterson.

More than a half-dozen large fires are burning across Colorado.  /kga

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