WATCH: Rare high-elevation tornado in Utah breaks records
A tornado touched down in the mountains of Utah last week, a rare example of how tornadoes can happen almost anywhere.
A massive funnel cloud swirled over mountainous terrain in Utah on Sept. 18 as a tornado touched down near a summit in Fruit Heights.
A tornado touched down high in the Utah mountains Friday, Sept. 18, carving a path through a forest at an elevation as high as 9,500 feet. The rare twister is one of only about a dozen tornadoes reported in Davis County since 1950, of which only two have struck since the year 2000.
The tornado was sighted about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City, or 2 miles east of Fruit Heights, on Francis Peak. Hailstones to 1.5 inches in diameter were also reported from the storms north and south of Salt Lake City.
The tornado's strength was rated EF2 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale following an NWS damage survey. The damage path from 120-mph winds was as wide as 1.1 miles, setting a new state record. The NWS said the tornado rose and fell over a total of 6,700 feet in elevation, and that some of the felled trees were over 200 years old.
According to data from the Storm Prediction Center, the highest elevation tornado in Utah on record had a starting elevation of 9,168 feet on June 19, 2022. The tornado on Sept. 18, 2026, started at 6,000 feet, rose to 9,500 feet, then went down to an endpoint of 6,200 feet.
An eyewitness to the storm was not able to return home after dozens of trees had fallen across the road. A Utah meteorologist visited the tornado site and reported widespread damage to trees.
The state of Utah has seen 4 EF3 tornadoes since 1950.
While tornadoes are rare in the mountains, they can occur at high elevations. An EF1 tornado was confirmed in Divide, Colorado, at an elevation of 9,160 feet on June 17, 2025. The highest-elevation tornado ever confirmed in Colorado occurred at Purple Mountain, at 12,600 feet, on May 29, 2021. It is also one of the only tornadoes confirmed to have snow in its vortex.
Prior to that, the record-holder was a tornado at 12,156 feet at Rockwell Pass, California. The twister touched down within the boundaries of Sequoia National Park on July 7, 2004.
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