Tornado, Sweetwater
- When
- April 20, 11:45 AM MST to 11:48 AM MST
- Where
- Sweetwater County, James Town
- Rating
- F1
- Path length
- 0.2 mi
- Path width
- 10 yd
- Reported by
- GENERAL PUBLIC
- Coordinates
- 41.517, -109.567
Tornado in Wyoming, April 20, 2001
8x10 metal shed destroyed.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- None recorded
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS RIW wrote it up.
8x10 metal shed destroyed.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Riverton, WY wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 20, 2:55 AM MST, 8 hours 50 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Apr 20, 2:55 AM MST, 8 hours 50 minutes before
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE RIVERTON WY 355 AM MDT FRI APR 20 2001 FIRST SHORT WAVE TROUGH ON TRACK MOVING FROM GREAT BASIN TOWARDS WYOMING. LOW LEVEL UPSLOPE FLOW INCREASING EAST OF CONTINENTAL DIVIDE WITH WIDESPREAD LOW CLOUDS ADVECTING INTO CENTRAL BASINS. FORECAST ON TRACK FRO INCREASING PRECIPITATION AND COOLER TEMPERATURES. TEMPERATURES WILL BE WARM ENOUGH FOR RAIN IN LOWER ELEVATIONS WITH NIGHT TIME CHANGE OVER TO SNOW. SOUTH TO HAVE BREAK IN PRECIPITATION FOR A SHORT TIME SATURDAY AHEAD OF MUCH STRONGER CUT OFF LOW THAT HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BE A SIGNIFICANT SNOWFALL SATURDAY NIGHT AND SUNDAY. WILL BE VERY DEPENDANT ON TRACK OF LOW AND AVN A BIT SOUTH OF TRACK PREDICTED LAST NIGHT. SINCE THERE IS A GREAT DEAL OF UNCERTAINTY AT THIS TIME WILL NOT ISSUE STATEMENT AND LEAVE THAT TO DAY SHIFT IF THEY DESIRE AFTER SEEING 12Z MODEL RUNS. TEMPS WILL ALSO BE A BIG FACTOR ON HOW MUCH SNOW CAN ACCUMULATE BUT AT THIS TIME WOULD LEAN TO ALL SNOW SUNDAY DAY TIME HOURS. HAVE INCREASED ACCUMULATIONS WEST AND MOUNTAINS SLIGHTLY AND ADDED SOME TO TONIGHT BELOW SNOW ADVISORY. MAINLY CUTTING TEMPS ABOUT 5 DEG F AS MODEL TRENDS COOLER AND WITJH CLOUDS AND PRECIPITATION USUALLY ARE TOO WARM INITALLY WITH BEGINNING OF EVENT. .RIW...NONE. C.BAKER
The radar
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornado and Hail in Iowa, April 20 to 21, 2001
- Hail in California, April 20, 2001
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Nebraska, April 20, 2001
- Damaging Wind in Nebraska, April 20, 2001
- Damaging Wind in California, April 20, 2001
- Damaging Wind in Nebraska, April 20, 2001
- Tornado and Hail in Kansas, April 20, 2001
- Damaging Wind in Wyoming, April 20, 2001
- Tornadoes and Hail in Nebraska, April 20, 2001
- High Wind in Colorado, April 20, 2001
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Kansas, April 20, 2001
- High Wind in Colorado, April 20, 2001
More
Every storm in Wyoming in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Wyoming, 2001Warnings in Wyoming, April 2001
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5239370.