Bellmont Tornado Series
--The is a series of 14 caches that will take you to a tornado track located north of Bellmont, AZ --
The October 2010 Arizona tornado outbreak was the largest single-day tornado-event in Arizona history, with eight tornadoes touching down.
On October 5 and 6, 2010, a strong area of low pressure situated off the coast of California produced a southerly flow of warm, moist air into Arizona. Warm surface temperatures and clear skies throughout the day on October 5 allowed for significant instability, resulting in scattered severe thunderstorms during the late afternoon, evening and overnight hours. These storms produced widespread damaging hail, ranging up to 3.0 in (7.6 cm) in diameter, and hurricane-force wind gusts of 86 mph (138 km/h).
9 confirmed tornadoes were reported by the Flagstaff office of the National Weather Service.
Two EF2 tornados occured in Bellmont on Octoder 6th, 2010. The 1st tornado was unusually long-lived tornado remained on the ground for 51 minutes along a path 34.14 mi (54.94 km) long, ranking it as the longest tracked tornado in Arizona history. Over 100 houses and several businesses were damaged, including at least 21 houses that were destroyed. Massive tree damage was also reported with thousands of trees snapped, and campers isolated as a result. An RV dealer was impacted, with many vehicles destroyed. Seven people were injured.The 2nd tornado was again a long track (second longest in the state's history), large wedge tornado derailed a train and damaged 28 rail cars. Forest damage was severe and many roads were blocked, and thousands of trees snapped. Power poles were also snapped.