DENVER, Colo. — Federal weather forecasters have identified three specific American cities — Denver, Colorado Springs, and Milwaukee — as the most likely places in the entire United States to experience a tornado on Wednesday, June 24, marking both regions with an official Level 1 tornado likelihood, the highest tornado risk anywhere in the country today.
Two completely separate danger zones have been drawn on Wednesday’s national tornado outlook. The first and larger zone stretches across eastern Colorado, centering its highest risk directly over Denver and Colorado Springs, where afternoon storm development along the Front Range is expected to generate tornado-capable supercells across the High Plains. The second zone sits hundreds of miles away near Lake Michigan, where the Milwaukee metro area faces its own isolated tornado threat driven by a combination of lake influence and incoming storm systems.
What makes Wednesday’s forecast unusual is the precision. Forecasters did not issue a broad regional warning covering large swaths of the country. Instead, they named specific metro areas — a signal that atmospheric conditions are favorable enough in those exact corridors that brief, dangerous tornadoes cannot be ruled out.
For Denver and Colorado Springs residents, the primary window of concern falls during the afternoon hours as storms fire off the mountains and push eastward onto the plains. For Milwaukee, the threat is smaller in geographic scope but still significant enough to warrant official flagging.
Outside of these three cities, the rest of the United States carries no meaningful tornado risk on Wednesday.
Residents in all three metro areas are urged to monitor local emergency alerts throughout the day, identify a safe interior shelter on the lowest floor of a sturdy building, and avoid seeking shelter under highway overpasses, which offer no tornado protection.
A tornado watch or warning in your area means immediate action — not a moment to step outside for a look.
