Hail — Big Horn, Wyoming

2018-07-26 · near Frannie, Big Horn, Wyoming

Event narrative

A severe thunderstorm crossed the border from Montana and brought up to golf ball size hail across much of northern Big Horn County. Lovell was the hardest hit community where there was widespread damage. One official estimated that over 60 percent of the homes had damage, mainly from damaged siding and broken windows from the hail bring driven by winds over 70 mph. Large hail was also occurred in Frannie and Cowley.

Wider weather episode

The combination of a stationary front over the area, a shortwave moving across the area and strong jet dynamics brought rounds of severe thunderstorms over northern and central Wyoming. The hardest hit town this day was Lovell where a combination of 70 mph winds and golf ball size hail produced widespread damage with hundreds of broken windows and many houses with damaged siding. Strong winds also downed many trees and limbs. The same storm produced 79 mph winds at the Greybull airport. Elsewhere, severe thunderstorms moved through Johnson and Natrona Counties. There were numerous reports of quarter to golf ball size hail from west of Buffalo through Midwest and into Casper. A weak landspout tornado also touched down north of Casper. Another storm produced quarter size hail in Thermopolis.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.9800, -108.5416)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 765567. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.