On July 28, a tornado touched down near the top of Mount Evans in Colorado. What makes this unusual is that it happened at an elevation of 11,900 feet above sea level. This is the second-highest documented tornado touchdown in United States history.
The highest known tornado touchdown was at 12,000 feet in Sequoia National Park in California in 2004.
Like all weather records, it must be said that these are certainly not the highest tornadoes ever, but merely the highest documented cases. Neither of these top two highest cases were strong tornadoes. In fact, there was no damage reported by either storm. In 1987, the highest known powerful tornado caused EF4 damage between 8,500 and 10,000 feet in the Teton Wilderness Area and Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.
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