After a tornado touched down in Highlands Ranch June 22, see how the community was affected and how they’re moving forward.
Summer.
Hot days, bright sun, warm air. At least, that’s the typical feeling of Colorado’s June. However, this year, it’s been just the opposite.
According to Fox31 News , this June is “the wettest June on record,” having accumulated over “5.19 inches of total rainfall” and breaking previous records.
On the night of June 21, Red Rocks was caught in a sudden hail storm , leaving concert-goers with injuries, damage to items such as cars, and a canceled show.
But, that wasn’t all the weather had in store.
The sky appears green as clouds circulate above the school’s soccer field June 22. The photo was taken at 3:25 p.m. (media by Claire Bauer ) According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) , on June 22, at about 3:24 p.m., an EF1 tornado reportedly touched down south of CO-470 in Highlands Ranch. It continued through Highlands Ranch and parts of Lone Tree until about 3:50 p.m., traveling a total of about eight miles with a maximum width of 50 yards.
While no injuries or deaths were officially reported, this storm included rain, hail and winds up to 105 mph, and left the impacted communities with damaged buildings, broken and fallen trees, and more.
“I was playing video games in my room and had been watching the lightning all day. Then, we got the tornado warning. I looked outside and it was crazy,” Luke Meredith ’24 said. “It go so dark it was practically night in my room. The [clouds] were starting to spin and they were a blue-green color outside. I’ve never seen anything like it. My dad [told] me to go downstairs, so we went and hid down there. As we were going, it started hailing super badly. We could hear the hail above us and we turned on some news channel.
“We watched them heading down roads we knew, they even went down Monarch in the hail. We were down there [about] 15 minutes–when we went upstairs, our whole street was flooded. The storm drains had completely filled and there were two inches of water over the whole street. We checked everything for damage but my family got incredibly lucky and everything was fine on our house. My car had a dent, but that was about it. We have like a dry creek near my house and it’s like an actual river now.”
Other students faced similar situations.
“I was at a friend’s house [during the tornado], they got some bad wind and huge hail too but I didn’t see a tornado and their neighborhood isn’t nearly as bad,” Lara Kasper ’24 said. “Our fence is pretty messed up and the tree in our front yard can’t be saved. So, our house is generally alright but one of the trees in our backyard broke off and hit our neighbor’s house, breaking a window and damaging their roof.”
Kasper’s mom, Lindsey Kasper, confirmed the damage.
A broken tree rests on top of Lara Kasper’s ’24 house June 22. The winds from the tornado broke or uprooted trees in its path. “Several trees were uprooted. A few lamp posts were even knocked over,” Lindsey Kasper said. (media by courtesy of Lara Kasper ’24)
“I was at work on Arapahoe, near [the] Centennial airport. I thought I could beat the storm home. This did not work. I ended up driving into small hail and lots of rain that made it impossible to see. By this time, the hail warning had turned into a tornado warning. I pulled into the Walgreens on Quebec and went into the store to find several others seeking shelter. It passed pretty quickly and I continued on my way home, only to find our front tree uprooted and resting on our house,” Lindsey Kasper said.
Kasper’s fence lies on the ground after the tornado June 22. “We have many fence panels down,” Lindsey Kasper said. (media by courtesy of Lara Kasper ’24) “My husband, Ryan, was at home in the basement and didn’t even know a tree was on the house. He must be deaf! The tornado passed very close to our house. There was intense pea-sized hail, lots of flooding water on the street.”
Trees and fences appear to be the most commonly damaged objects in the area. As of June 25, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office estimated that the tornado knocked down around 16,000 trees.
“When the storm hit, me and my dad were driving on University. The weather on the road was terrible, there was so much rain and hail,” Amber Pravasi ‘26 said. “Our car had no friction to the road, [it] was roughly shaking. At times, it felt like our car was about to tip over. Some big tree branches were flying at us and one of them hit the side of our car. M e and my dad were both silent. I was mostly just in disbelief of what was going on. W e saw that tons of trees had fallen over and some were on the road. Road signs had fallen over, fences were blown over and there was even a traffic light that had fallen in the middle of the road.”
While the tornado only lasted for a little over 20 minutes, the repairs and cleanup afterward will last much longer.
“The aftermath was the hardest part to deal with,” Sydney Lowery ’25 said. “We had multiple cracked windows and had to chop down our 30-year-old tree in the backyard. Almost every tree on my block had to be chopped down due to the storm. Some shingles on the roof are missing. Both of our side fences collapsed due to other trees and the wind. All of our furniture pushed over one of our side fences and we are still looking for some of it.”
A pine tree belonging to Hayden Lossman ’25 and her family is bare and branchless June 27. On June 22, the tree was snapped in half by the tornado. Lossman and her family chopped the branches off the tree and got rid of the debris themselves. (media by Claire Bauer ) Free debris drop-offs have been established at Redstone Park, located at 3280 Redstone Park Circle, and Highland Heritage Park, found at 9651 S. Quebec.
“My house didn’t have any major damage, but one of our big pine trees split in half and broke our fence. Part of our roof got damaged and there were also a few smaller damages, like broken lights and decorations,” Hayden Lossman ’25 said.
While Lossman and her family chose to handle the damage and debris clean-up themselves, others may choose to use companies. However, Douglas County Sheriff’s Office warns to avoid scams, and for damage found on public property, Douglas County encourages citizens to report it through their Report a Problem form .
“The tornado went through my neighborhood. It did serious damage to a few houses on my street, but the one adjacent was hit hard, with trees uprooted on cars, fences blown down and windows broken,” RCTV teacher James McClurg said. “The aftermath really brought neighbors together to help cut branches for those who had damage, helping strangers out as some of us were lucky to only have minimal damage.”
More information and resources for clean-up and recovery can be found on the Highlands Ranch Metro District Storm Damage page .
“I’ve lived in Colorado most of my life, 37 years. I have never experienced anything like this,” Lindsey Kasper said. “It’s a false belief that we are too close to the mountains to actually have tornadoes and I will be the first to admit that I don’t always take the warnings seriously. Now, I will! Things can be replaced, but lives cannot.”
The Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will be sending out personnel from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 29 and 30 to assess tornado damage in local neighborhoods.
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![On Oct. 30, 24 Eco Club members took a tour of the school’s solar panels on the roof. They were guided and taught by an employee from E Light Electric, the company that maintains the school’s solar panels, and learned about how the panels are maintained and cared for. “I was definitely very excited about being on the roof in general,” Eco Club member Olivia Fang ‘26 said. “[It was exciting to] learn more about solar panels and how they work and how they supply energy to our school.”](https://rockmediaonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/RCH_2632-600x400.jpg)
Anna Bauer • Jul 31, 2023 at 5:16 pm
Good job, excellent reporting!!