Siri said a tornado is in Fort Collins' Friday forecast, so I asked a meteorologist

If you casually ask your iPhone for the Fort Collins weather forecast Friday, you might be in for a bit of a shock.

Anticipating my Friday bike commute, I thought, "It looks a little cloudy. I should probably check the weather." Had I just gone to my weather app, I would have seen the standard June-in-Colorado thunderstorm clouds for portions of the day.

But I asked my phone, which casually replied in its usual, chipper tone: "The forecast is calling for a tornado today."

Hard stop.

If you also relied on the convenience of technology to be your personal assistant and heard that jarring message, here's what I found out after I went into the rabbit hole of trying to determine if we were at risk of a tornado like the one that hit Highlands Ranch Thursday.

What weather forecasts say about the Fort Collins forecast for June 23

We'll start with my phone's weather app, which proudly declared an expectation it will be "mostly sunny," with some thunderstorms expected Friday afternoon.

AccuWeather's online Fort Collins forecast offers a cheery graphic of a sun with some small clouds on it and declares it's expected to be "pleasant with clouds and sun."

The National Weather Service's online forecast for Fort Collins called for a "mostly sunny" day with a chance of showers after 3 p.m. Friday. No mention of a tornado there.

If you click on the hazardous weather outlook linked at the top of the NWS forecast, though, you'll find one paragraph that references a tornado: "Scattered, lower coverage thunderstorms possible this afternoon with a chance for a few strong to severe storms over the northeast plains. Hail and wind would be the main concerns and an isolated tornado can't be ruled out."

Though Larimer County is listed as one of the included locations that outlook, Fort Collins isn't specified (and isn't in the northeast plains).

Hmm.

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Here's what a meteorologist had to say when I asked him if a tornado was likely to hit Fort Collins Friday

I couldn't let it go. After all, my phone told me there was going to be a tornado before I'd even had my morning coffee — and consistently keeps telling me and others I had ask their phones the same question the same story, sometimes with slightly different phrasing: "A tornado is expected today."

So, after the encouragement of the Coloradoan's editor, Eric Larsen, I called the weather service directly and spoke to Scott Entrekin, a meteorologist who was similarly perplexed by my phone's warning and said Fort Collins isn't included in an area expected to get severe storms Friday.

"Right now, actually, Fort Collins is pretty much in a dry forecast, or isolated, non-severe storms," Entrekin said.

He wondered if it was picking up a warning from another day or for another area, noting severe storms are possible in other portions of the state — the "Wyoming/Nebraska side."

But as for Fort Collins, "we're barely going to get thunderstorms up there," he said.

Thanks for clarifying, Scott.

I reached out to Apple, and this article may be updated if I learn more from them.

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This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Is a tornado in the Fort Collins forecast? Your iPhone may say yes