FRANCIS PEAK, UTAH — A camping trip near Francis Peak turned into a terrifying ordeal for one Utah couple Friday afternoon when a tornado moved through the area.
Nick and Krista Lemoine were camping near Middle Smith Lake when the weather suddenly turned severe.
Krista says her husband, Nick, watched as strong winds moved through the area and trees began coming down around their campsite.
Then, the road they had used to get in was blocked by fallen trees.
Nick was forced to hike out, leaving their truck behind overnight.
The National Weather Service said the tornado formed Friday afternoon after meteorologists spotted a classic hook echo on radar near Kaysville.
“We started to see basically just like a hook echo that you'd see on a supercell in like Oklahoma form over the Kaysville area, and that's when we issued our tornado warning,” said Brittany Whitlam, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Salt Lake City.
Video from the area helped confirm that a tornado had touched down.
“It was pretty easy to see from those videos that we were seeing that that was in fact a tornado that touched down,” Whitlam said.
The National Weather Service also says damage to trees near Francis Peak was consistent with a tornado, including trees knocked down in a converging pattern.
And while many people associate tornadoes with the Great Plains, Whitlam says mountains do not prevent them from forming.
“Mountains don't inhibit the formation of tornadoes. It can actually help the formation of tornadoes,” Whitlam said.
In this case, she says wind orientation around the mountain likely played a role.
The National Weather Service says Utah averages about two to three tornadoes a year.
The Lemoine family left their truck near the campsite overnight and planned to work with the Forest Service Saturday to determine how to safely retrieve it.
Meteorologists are still working to determine the tornado's strength.
For anyone heading into Utah's mountains, weather officials say conditions can change quickly. Check the forecast before heading out, stay weather aware and know where you can take shelter if severe weather moves into the area.