Tornado Warning, Hail for Bent/Prowers County Borders

A tornado warning was posted by the National Weather Service for portions of eastern Bent and Western Prowers County Thursday evening, June 5.  Hail, about two inches in diameter, was reported around the Hasty/McClave area of southeastern Colorado, accompanied by a brief and isolated rainfall.  No injuries or severe damage of note was reported by the weather service.

Photo by Lee Robinson

Photo supplied by Jeff Stoney

Several Lamar residents noted that the siren warning system was activated with a single, lengthy alert generated for the approaching storm.  However, one or two of the sirens failed to respond, including the ones at West Yucca and South 14^th Street near the Lamar High School soccer field.  A second siren along West Elm Street also did not alert.  Staffon Warn, Emergency Operations Director for Prowers County, said he will look into any problems associated with those warning systems.

For some residents wondering about their Code Red Alert, an Emergency 9-1-1 operator explained that the system did function for those subscribers who were indicated in the path of the storm, correlated by radar and their zip code.  Although some television stations reported on a tornado warning for Bent and western Prowers County last night, the Code Red was not needed for Lamar residents as their location was not impacted by the alert.  The Code Red system was activated last week in response to the heavy rains and severe thunderstorm warning for the Lamar area.

By Russ Baldwin