Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 1969

F0 tornado, Lincoln County, Wyoming, June 10, 1969

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Lincoln County on June 10, 1969, touching down at 1:20 PM GMT-6 and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 10, 1969
Touchdown
1:20 PM GMT-6 (19:20 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
67 yards (61 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Lincoln County
Touchdown point
41.800, -110.300
Record number
254

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY (KLND), 12:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. June 10, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY at 12:00Z on 1969-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 38 joules per kilogram, CIN -80, lifted condensation level 754 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY at 12:00Z on 1969-06-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -68 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
38 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-80 J/kg
Surface CAPE
36 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
754 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-68 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY (KLND), 00:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 174 km from the path. June 11, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY at 00:00Z on 1969-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 20 joules per kilogram, CIN -152, lifted condensation level 578 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY at 00:00Z on 1969-06-11The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 106 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 36 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
20 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-152 J/kg
Surface CAPE
161 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
578 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
106 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
129 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1969 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 1969

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 107:35 AM GMT-5F2Hockley, TX0.110
June 103:15 PM GMT-5F0, FL0.110
June 103:45 PM GMT-5F0Tripp, SD0.110
June 107:18 PM GMT-5F0Ochiltree, TX0.110
June 108:00 PM GMT-5F0Beaver, OK0.110
June 109:35 PM GMT-5F2Phelps, NE2.0400
June 1010:53 PM GMT-5F0Sherman, TX0.117

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.