Funnel Cloud Spotted Near Lafayette, Colorado

Around 1 PM on Sunday afternoon the Lafayette, Colorado, emergency sirens were activated as a cell of severe weather moved through the area. The sirens sounded for about 5 minutes as the funnel cloud moved from north to south about five miles east of the Lafayette region.

The funnel cloud began as a vertical funnel cloud north of the town of Erie, CO before moving south towards Broomfield. As the tornado traveled toward Broomfield it became increasingly horizontal. After about 10 minutes the tornado began to become increasingly wider and strung out across the sky. It eventually dissipated over northern Broomfield.

A local resident captured video of the tornado in Lafayette near the Lamont Does City Park. It shows the dramatic presence this funnel cloud created as it swept just east of town. It shows a well-defined column stretching from the wall cloud downward towards the ground. It's unclear from the video if the funnel cloud touched down.

No hail is reported to have fallen in the town of Lafayette. Golf ball sized hail was reported to have fallen in the Erie area. The extent of wind and hail damage in the Thornton, Erie, and Lafayette region from this cell is unknown.

The City of Lafayette is one of a few Boulder County communities with an emergency siren system. Lafayette's sirens are tested the first Monday of every month from April - August at 10 AM. The sirens will sound for a period of two minutes. Sirens in Boulder County are located in Boulder, Longmont, Louisville, Lafayette, Lyons, and Eldorado Springs. In an actual emergency, the sirens will only sound for five minutes.

The Lafayette funnel cloud was part of a string of funnel clouds spotted on Sunday afternoon in the Denver Metro region. A total of five funnel clouds were reported on Sunday before the system moved out of Colorado.

A tornado in the Aurora area caused the most significant damage in the Denver Metro area. A shopping mall experienced considerable damage and a man taking pictures of the storm in Aurora was injured and taken to an area hospital.

The National Weather Service did not predict storms in Colorado for Sunday. While tornados are common in June in Colorado, the conditions that set off Sunday's events are highly unusual. A combination of westerly winds aloft and upslope conditions triggered this rare type of event. More storms are predicted in Colorado for Monday.