Rare night tornadoes reported on Colorado plains

ADS, Colo. (AP) — At least five homes were destroyed early Friday after as many as three rare nighttime tornadoes reportedly ripped through sparsely populated counties on the southeastern Colorado plains.

State authorities said tornadoes were reported in Prowers, Kiowa and Bent counties. Lamar officials in Prowers County said deputies and state troopers spotted a fast and large tornado south of the city that ripped through four homes and left at least two people with minor injuries.

A fifth home in Chivington in Kiowa County was totaled after the five people sleeping inside escaped, said owner Therisa Brown, who added that there was no warning before her home was demolished.

"We woke up to the roof getting ripped off," Brown said. "We went to the living room, and we lifted a wall off of a friend who was staying with us. That's when the tornado circled back, and it hit the house again. We barely made it into the bathroom."

She said only a few exterior walls remained of her home. A photo from The Denver Post showed the ceiling and wall gone from about half the house, a stove standing in the wide open kitchen.

Chris Sorensen, a spokesman for the Colorado Division of Homeland Security, said the areas hit were mostly isolated farmland. A tractor-trailer was blown over on Colorado Highway 96 near Chivington, in Kiowa County.

The National Weather Service hasn't confirmed the tornadoes but has sent a team to assess the damage. There was also a report of a tornado touching down near Yoder in El Paso County on Thursday night and damaging a barn, said Patrick Cioffi, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Pueblo.

Tornado season usually doesn't begin until May in Colorado. Overnight tornadoes are more common in Kansas and Oklahoma than in Colorado, where most severe weather is fueled by daytime heat, Cioffi said. He said the severe weather on the plains followed near record temperatures in the 80s.

Heat creates instability in the atmosphere which can lead to severe thunderstorms and tornadoes.

Power has been knocked out in Lamar and most of Prowers County because of the severe weather. Drivers traveling across the plains were warned to fuel up because gasoline wasn't available in the area.

No shelters have been established, said Catherine Barde, a spokeswoman for Pikes Peak Chapter of Red Cross.

"Right now we are just on standby," she said. "We are working with families on an individual basis."

The same band of storms also dropped snow in Breckenridge and the Eisenhower Tunnel, said forecaster Todd Dankers in Boulder. High winds swept the Western Slope, but no injuries were reported, he said.