NWS confirms brief tornado northeast of Las Animas, no damage reported

The National Weather Service in Pueblo confirmed a brief tornado northeast of Las Animas that stayed on the ground for about one minute and dissipated over open grazing land with no reported damage.

NWS Pueblo said in a social-media post, “After reviewing some data, we have confirmed a brief tornado that developed to the northeast of Las Animas on June 26, 2026.” The office said the tornado lifted northeast of its starting point after crossing open grazing land.

The confirmation came after a 2:45 a.m. MDT special weather statement on June 26 that said the storm would remain over mainly rural areas of southeastern Otero, east central Las Animas and southwestern Bent counties. That mattered in a county where much of the ground between Las Animas, the Bent County line and the open country east of town is ranch land, not dense neighborhood development.

The June 26 tornado followed several days of severe-weather alerts in Las Animas County. NWS products showed severe thunderstorm warnings on June 22 and June 24, and a tornado warning issued by NWS Pueblo on June 24 ran for 26 minutes, from 05:18 UTC to 05:44 UTC, before ending without a tornado report filed at that time.

The region was not dealing with an isolated burst of weather. Nearby severe storms and tornado-related activity also were tracked in southeastern Colorado during the same stretch, including events near Fowler and Eads. For rural residents, ranchers and emergency officials spread across Las Animas County, the sequence of warnings and the later tornado confirmation served as a practical test of how quickly weather alerts reached people living and working on open ground.