How the Davis County tornado dispelled a common weather myth

FRUIT HEIGHTS — A tornado that touched down near Francis Peak on Friday knocked down numerous trees and snapped some in half at the base, leaving a path of destruction about 100 to 200 yards wide and over a mile long.

"You could tell that this thing was packing quite a bit of wind, and there was quite a bit of debris within the wind because the trees were kind of scarred up and tangled up," said KSL meteorologist Matt Johnson, who toured the site on Saturday.

The tornado's exact strength is still to be determined. A report on it may not be released until next week, as the National Weather Service's Salt Lake City office reviews the damage.

The storm system produced large, quarter- and half-dollar-sized hail through several Davis County communities. A landspout also touched down approximately 15 miles southeast of Naples, Uintah County, as it moved east, federal meteorologists noted.

More than anything, it debunked a myth about tornadoes that Utah has previously dispelled: Tornadoes can touch down in the mountains.

"They're not as unusual as they may seem," said Christine Kruse, a lead meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

The mountain tornado myth

Almost immediately after video of Friday's tornado emerged, online chatter shifted to a notion about Utah weather.

"I've always been told we don't get tornadoes in this area because of the mountains," one person wrote on Reddit. Others responded that they have also heard this.

This is likely rooted in how tornadoes develop.

Supercells require specific wind dynamics to come together, and Utah's complex topography can mess with those elements, Johnson explains. Tornadoes require wind shear, along with the collision of different air masses. Those ingredients aren't as common in Utah's mountain terrain, likely factoring into this belief.

It's one of a few myths that Kruse has heard. She told KSL she's also heard they don't cross rivers or hit cities, both of which are also not true.

Dispelling the myth

Utah averages approximately two tornadoes annually, although most data about them dates back to the 1950s.

Improved technology, including radar and recording devices, and transportation have only started to make it easier to locate where tornadoes occur in remote areas of the state that may have been inaccessible in the past, so the number could be higher.

There have been at least four this year, when including a fire-induced tornado that developed in central Utah. Two of them touched down in the mountains, helping dispel myths about where twisters form.

Friday's tornado touched down near 7,500 feet elevation, while damage was found as high as 9,000 feet elevation. It follows a tornado that touched down in the mountains near the Rich-Cache county line in April, which reached EF-1 strength with maximum winds estimated at 100 mph.

A few other tornadoes have occurred in Utah's mountains over the years, along with other mountain locations.

Twisters have been documented even as high as over 12,100 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Alan Smith, a meteorologist for Open Snow, pointed out in 2024.

"The ingredients occasionally line up to support tornadic development in mountainous terrain, and when this does occur, some studies have shown that mountainous terrain can actually enhance tornadic development," he wrote at the time.

That may have been the case on Friday, too, Johnson said. Many people witnessed a funnel cloud passing through Davis County valley before it touched down in the mountains, potentially receiving what it needed to touch down as it reached the terrain.

Adding to Utah's tornado history

Friday's tornado could, however, add to what is known about Utah's tornadoes.

Johnson noticed patches of damage scattered a mile from the apparent main path, indicating that the tornado produced multiple vortices around its periphery that also created damage.

Kruse confirmed that the National Weather Service is investigating a multi-vortex tornado as a possibility. That's something that will be determined over the next week as a report is compiled, but she's unaware of that ever being recorded in Utah.

A few videos have also surfaced of the tornado as it churned in the mountains, something that wasn't the case with the Rich County twister or many other mountain ones. This could potentially give researchers a better understanding of mountain tornadoes.

It might be "one of the most visual mountain tornadoes" documented in the state, Kruse said. She cautions that people should seek shelter during a tornado warning, which had been issued, adding that safety is more important than the video evidence.

Yet, it and other evidence from the storm could reshape tornado forecasting in Utah. The weather service plans to review radar signatures, storm damage and other elements that will be used to improve warning decisions.

It's too early to know if that means more tornado warnings could be issued in Utah. That may depend on the storm, but Kruse hopes that Friday's storm inspires people to take safety precautions when severe weather forms.

"Hopefully now when people think of severe thunderstorms (and) if they see a tornado warning, they'll remember the situation and take cover and make sure they stay safe," she said.

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