Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 1969

F0 tornado, Natrona County, Wyoming, May 15, 1969

This F0 tornado ran 3.8 miles across Natrona County on May 15, 1969, touching down at 2:57 PM GMT-6 and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 of property damage.

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, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
May 15, 1969
Touchdown
2:57 PM GMT-6 (20:57 UTC)
Path length
3.8 miles (6.1 km)
Path width
67 yards (61 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Natrona County
Touchdown point
42.930, -106.330
Lift-off point
42.970, -106.250
Record number
173

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

9.0 hours before the tornado, 197 km from the path. May 15, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY at 12:00Z on 1969-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -7784, lifted condensation level 1386 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1969-05-15The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7784 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1386 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
62 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.0 hours after it, 197 km from the path. May 16, 1969.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lander/Hunt Fiel, WY at 00:00Z on 1969-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 25 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 1327 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 1969-05-16The 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 -63 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
25 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
493 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1327 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-63 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 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 May 15, 1969

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 151:01 AM GMT-5F0Beckham, OK0.110
May 156:00 AM GMT-4F2Tift, GA2.033$500 to $5,000
May 1511:10 AM GMT-5F0Matagorda, TX0.133
May 153:30 PM GMT-4F1Palm Beach, FL0.110$50 to $500
May 153:36 PM GMT-4F0Palm Beach, FL0.110
May 154:00 PM GMT-5F0Randall, TX0.510
May 155:30 PM GMT-5F2Denton, TX0.233$5,000 to $50,000
May 159:20 PM GMT-5F0Garza, TX0.117
May 1511:55 PM GMT-5F0Dawson, 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.