Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2003

F0 tornado, Rock Spgs, Wyoming, June 24, 2003

This F0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Sweetwater County on June 24, 2003, touching down at 1:30 PM MDT. 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 24, 2003
Touchdown
1:30 PM MDT (19:30 UTC)
Path length
0.0 miles (0.0 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sweetwater County
Touchdown point
41.230, -108.070
Lift-off point
41.230, -108.070
Record number
407

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado occurred over open country. No damage was reported.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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.

Riverton, WY (KRIW), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 206 km from the path. June 24, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 12:00Z on 2003-06-24Temperature 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 -80964, lifted condensation level 658 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°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, Riverton, WY at 12:00Z on 2003-06-24The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-80964 J/kg
Surface CAPE
8 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
658 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
194 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Riverton, WY (KRIW), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 206 km from the path. June 25, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 00:00Z on 2003-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN 0, lifted condensation level 529 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°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, Riverton, WY at 00:00Z on 2003-06-25The 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 -32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 18 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
0 J/kg
Surface CAPE
40 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
529 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Continental Div (CTD), 59 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:30 UTC42.839.250° 19 kt23
17:50 UTC42.839.250° 22 kt23
18:10 UTC42.839.250° 18 kt23
18:31 UTC44.639.250° 17 kt20
18:51 UTC44.639.250° 20 kt23
19:10 UTC44.639.250° 16 kt19
19:30 UTC42.839.250° 16 kt20
19:50 UTC42.839.250° 16 kt20
20:10 UTC42.842.8360° 12 kt16
20:30 UTC42.839.250° 13 kt17
20:50 UTC42.839.250° 13 kt16
21:10 UTC42.839.250° 14 kt16

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Riverton/Lander radar (KRIW), 207 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:32 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2003 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 24, 2003

94 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 245:15 PM CDTF0Davison, SD0.450
June 245:17 PM CDTF2Davison, SD6.0400$500,000
June 245:38 PM CDTF0Lincoln, MN0.150
June 245:53 PM CDTF0Pottawattamie, IA0.330
June 245:55 PM CDTF0Cedar, NE0.030
June 245:55 PM CDTF0Pope, MN0.125
June 245:58 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.250
June 246:08 PM CDTF0Dixon, NE0.150
June 246:17 PM CDTF0Lincoln, SD1.050
June 246:19 PM CDTF0Sanborn, SD0.150
June 246:23 PM CDTF3Sanborn, SD6.0500$510,000
June 246:30 PM CDTF0Lincoln, SD0.150
June 246:42 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.150
June 246:42 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.550
June 246:44 PM CDTF0Lincoln, NE0.110
June 246:45 PM CDTF0Sanborn, SD0.550
June 246:46 PM CDTF1Renville, MN4.5100$500,000
June 246:55 PM CDTF0Sanborn, SD0.150
June 247:00 PM CDTF0Custer, NE2.130$50,000
June 247:00 PM CDTF0Beadle, SD0.250
June 247:00 PM CDTF0Beadle, SD0.250
June 247:10 PM CDTF0Lincoln, NE0.110$50,000
June 247:16 PM CDTF0Beadle, SD0.150
June 247:27 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.4100
June 247:29 PM CDTF4Manchester tornado, SD10.01,0004$3.0 million
June 247:30 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.7100
June 247:30 PM CDTF0Clay, SD1.0100
June 247:30 PM CDTF0Sibley, MN3.050
June 247:32 PM CDTF1Clay, SD1.5200
June 247:32 PM CDTF0Clay, SD2.0100
June 247:33 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.550
June 247:33 PM CDTF0Turner, SD1.0100
June 247:33 PM CDTF2Renville, MN5.58805$15 million
June 247:35 PM CDTF0Codington, SD0.525
June 247:38 PM CDTF0Lincoln, SD0.550
June 247:47 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.125
June 247:49 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.2100
June 247:52 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.150
June 247:53 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.250
June 247:54 PM CDTF0Charles Mix, SD0.550
June 247:55 PM CDTF0Turner, SD2.0100
June 247:58 PM CDTF2Kingsbury, SD2.2200$200,000
June 247:58 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.150
June 248:00 PM CDTF2Turner, SD7.0400
June 248:03 PM CDTF1Charles Mix, SD3.0200$50,000
June 248:03 PM CDTF1Kandiyohi, MN3.050
June 248:04 PM CDTF0Rock, NE0.120
June 248:05 PM CDTF1Kingsbury, SD0.7100
June 248:10 PM CDTF1Lincoln, SD2.8100
June 248:10 PM CDTF0Turner, SD3.5100
June 248:10 PM CDTF1Charles Mix, SD3.0150
June 248:10 PM CDTF1Renville, MN1.5100$500,000
June 248:15 PM CDTF0Kandiyohi, MN0.550
June 248:17 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.150
June 248:19 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.150
June 248:20 PM CDTF0Turner, SD0.750
June 248:20 PM CDTF0Turner, SD1.050
June 248:20 PM CDTF1Kingsbury, SD0.7100
June 248:20 PM CDTF2Lincoln, SD7.7300$500,000
June 248:25 PM CDTF0Rock, NE0.110

All 95 of them

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.