Tornado touches down behind AccuWeather storm chaser during live shot

Brian Lada
·2 min read
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It has been a hectic week for severe weather across the United States that started with a deadly severe weather outbreak across the East Coast Monday that was followed up by a frenzy of twisters in Colorado Tuesday.

AccuWeather Meteorologist and Storm Chaser Tony Laubach was live on the AccuWeather Network when he intercepted a tornado near Yuma, Colorado, located about 120 miles northeast of Denver.

"When that tornado started to develop, it was kicking up so much dust that it was hiding the tornado," Laubach explained after the heart-pounding encounter. Laubach added that the tornado appeared to miss the town of Yuma and swirled primarily over open land.

This was one of nearly a dozen tornadoes reported in northeastern Colorado Tuesday.

AccuWeather meteorologist and storm chaser Tony Laubach points at a tornado near Yuma, Colorado, on Aug. 8, 2023. (AccuWeather/Tony Laubach)

Laubach encountered more than just tornadoes when tracking storms Tuesday afternoon.

Hailstones larger than baseballs were measured in the area and were large enough to shatter double-paned windows, according to storm reports from the Storm Prediction Center.

Hailstones larger than baseballs pelted areas near Yuma, Colorado, on Aug. 8, 2023. (AccuWeather/Tony Laubach)

One storm chaser measured a hailstone that was more than 5 inches across. The National Weather Service said that this may be a new record in Colorado for the largest hailstone diameter, and that climatologists will work to confirm the report, which could take days to weeks. Currently, the official record for the largest diameter of a hailstone is 4.83 inches, recorded on Aug. 13, 2019.

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Colorado has been a hotbed for tornadoes in 2023 with 76 twisters, the fourth in the nation following Illinois (130), Alabama (93), and Texas (78), as of Aug. 8, according to the SPC.

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