Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming

1997 tornadoes in Wyoming

26 tornadoes touched down in Wyoming in 1997, 157 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1996 1998 The whole country in 1997

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.

F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Wyoming in 1997

June 1 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 1	5:45 PM MDT	F0	Laramie	0.1	10

June 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 2	2:35 PM MDT	F0	Platte	0.1	10

June 6 5 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
June 6	2:04 PM MDT	F0	Carbon	0.1	10
June 6	3:25 PM MDT	F1	Fremont	2.0	40
June 6	5:58 PM MDT	F0	Big Horn	0.5	50
June 6	6:00 PM MDT	F0	Big Horn	0.2	30
June 6	6:10 PM MDT	F1	Big Horn	1.0	50

June 8 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 8	3:34 PM MDT	F0	Carbon	0.1	10

June 10 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 10	2:45 PM MDT	F0	Sweetwater	0.1	30
June 10	6:50 PM MDT	F0	Platte	0.1	10

June 11 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 11	11:40 AM MDT	F0	Crook	0.1	10

June 13 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 13	7:25 PM MDT	F0	Big Horn	0.1	30
June 13	7:35 PM MDT	F0	Big Horn	0.1	30

June 14 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 14	4:25 PM MDT	F0	Lincoln	0.5	30
June 14	5:45 PM MDT	F0	Laramie	0.1	10

June 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 18	2:25 PM MDT	F1	Laramie	0.1	10			$2,000

July 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 6	5:02 PM MDT	F0	Laramie	0.1	10

July 19 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 19	2:33 PM MDT	F0	Sublette	3.0	100

July 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 24	4:09 PM MDT	F0	Big Horn	0.1	50

July 29 4 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)
July 29	3:50 PM MDT	F0	Converse	0.1	10
July 29	3:54 PM MDT	F0	Converse	0.1	10
July 29	4:00 PM MDT	F0	Converse	0.1	10
July 29	4:58 PM MDT	F0	Converse	0.1	10

August 2 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 2	3:30 PM MDT	F0	Laramie	0.1	10

August 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 6	12:17 PM MDT	F0	Goshen	0.1	10

August 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 10	3:46 PM MDT	F0	Carbon	1.0	10

Nearby

Every tornado in Wyoming since 1950 Warnings in force in Wyoming The live radar over Wyoming

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.