Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2004

F0 tornado, Sheridan, Wyoming, June 10, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 3.6 miles across Sheridan County on June 10, 2004, touching down at 3:25 PM MDT and reaching 100 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, 2004
Touchdown
3:25 PM MDT (21:25 UTC)
Path length
3.6 miles (5.8 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sheridan County
Touchdown point
44.870, -106.950
Lift-off point
44.870, -106.950
Record number
720

What the Weather Service recorded

An F0 tornado touched down just north of Sheridan, Wyoming over open range. The tornado formed at 325 pm and dissipated at 350 pm. No damage, injuries, or deaths occurred. The tornado touched down approximately N 44.86 W 107.06 and lifted at N 44.87 W 107.00 with a track of 3.6 miles.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:17 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningBYZ
21:30 UTC21:31 UTCTornado WarningBYZ
21:34 UTC22:00 UTCTornado WarningBYZ
22:01 UTC22:30 UTCTornado WarningBYZ

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 20:13 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

9.4 hours before the tornado, 231 km from the path. June 10, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 12:00Z on 2004-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 830 joules per kilogram, CIN -115, lifted condensation level 1271 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2004-06-10The 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 88 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
830 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-115 J/kg
Surface CAPE
406 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1271 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
158 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Riverton, WY (KRIW), 00:00Z

2.6 hours after it, 231 km from the path. June 11, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 00:00Z on 2004-06-11Temperature 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 -108223, lifted condensation level 2104 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 00:00Z on 2004-06-11The 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 16 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 16 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-108223 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2104 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Billings radar (KBLX), 169 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:25 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 2004 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 10, 2004

19 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 102:00 PM CDTF0Champaign, IL0.710
June 102:20 PM CDTF0Champaign, IL0.510
June 102:38 PM CDTF1Champaign, IL3.030$10,000
June 102:57 PM CDTF0Vermilion, IL3.510
June 102:26 PM MDTF0Box Butte, NE0.130
June 102:35 PM MDTF0Sedgwick, CO0.550
June 102:41 PM MDTF1Deuel, NE10.02202$70,000
June 103:40 PM MDTF0Keith, NE0.120$10,000
June 104:05 PM MDTF0Keith, NE0.520
June 104:15 PM MDTF0Arthur, NE0.620$30,000
June 105:28 PM CDTF1Bureau, IL0.3125$10,000
June 105:30 PM CDTF1Bureau, IL0.3125$10,000
June 104:53 PM MDTF1Stanley, SD1.0400
June 105:55 PM CDTF0Woodford, IL0.110
June 105:00 PM MDTF0Arthur, NE0.220
June 106:55 PM CDTF0Lincoln, NE0.120
June 107:32 PM CDTF0Thomas, KS0.350
June 109:49 PM CDTF1Webster, NE12.0300$500,000
June 1011:05 PM CDTF0Howard, NE1.0100$40,000

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.