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EF3 tornado in Albany County, Wyoming

Tornado June 6, 2018 · Albany County, Wyoming

EF3

Rating

11.3 mi

Path length

600 yd

Path width

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An isolated supercell thunderstorm developed a tornado three to four miles west of Highway 30. The tornado continued an eastward track and intensified rapidly over the mainly open fields. Numerous wooden power poles were snapped along County Road 121, along with several galvanized steel utility poles, which were bent 90 degrees at the base. Grass was scoured out of the ground in a wide swath approximately one third of a mile in width near the intersection of County Road 121 and Cattle drive. The observed tornado continued east into the Laramie Range near King Mountain Road.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms generated large hail over parts of Niobrara and Goshen counties in addition to a well photogenic tornadic supercell over Albany County. Two tornadoes, the parent and a satellite, were confirmed by photos from storm chasers and official NWS Storm Survey. The parent tornado was rated as an EF-3 while the satellite was rated as an EF-2. Some residential damage was caused by the satellite tornado including the lifting off the foundation of a attached garage. The parent EF-3 tornado bent galvanized steel utility poles 90 degrees at base.

Began near Wyoming (41.4690, -105.6760).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Albany County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 785903. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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