Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2008

EF1 tornado, Four Corners to Deerfield, Wyoming, June 10, 2008

From Four Corners to Deerfield, this EF1 tornado ran 7.2 miles across Weston and Pennington counties on June 10, 2008, touching down at 7:50 PM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

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

  1. EF065 to 85 mph

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

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

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

  3. EF2111 to 135 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. EF3136 to 165 mph

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

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

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

  6. EF5over 200 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
EF1
Date
June 10, 2008
Touchdown
7:50 PM CDT (00:50 UTC)
Lifted
8:06 PM CDT (01:06 UTC)
On the ground
16 minutes
Path length
7.2 miles (11.6 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Weston and Pennington counties
Touchdown point
44.042, -104.102
Lift-off point
44.112, -104.000
Record number
0806101850-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A supercell thunderstorm developed over northeastern Weston County. The storm produced hail to golf ball size and a tornado.

A severe thunderstorm moved from northeastern Wyoming into the central Black Hills and produced a tornado and large hail.

A tornado touched down near Beaver Creek Road southeast of Four Corners and traveled northeastward into South Dakota. The only damage it caused was blown down and snapped trees. Time of the tornado was estimated from Doppler Radar.

A tornado touched southeast of Four Corners, Wyoming and traveled northeastward into the Black Hills of far western South Dakota. It blew down and snapped almost 600 acres of trees on the Black Hills National Forest. The tornado track was determined from a US Forest Service aerial survey; time of the tornado was estimated from Doppler Radar.

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
21:00 UTC11:32 UTCFlood WatchUNR
00:26 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningUNR
00:58 UTC01:11 UTCTornado WarningUNR

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 22:30 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.

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 00:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 94 km from the path. June 11, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2008-06-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1074 joules per kilogram, CIN -152, lifted condensation level 855 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2008-06-11The 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 88 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 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
1074 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-152 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1441 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
855 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
365 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.7
Supercell composite
3.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 94 km from the path. June 11, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2008-06-11Temperature 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 -27628, lifted condensation level 1006 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2008-06-11The 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 -127 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
-27628 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1006 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-127 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
212 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 98 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:50 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
00:27 UTCHAIL 0.8810 Ene UptonWeston, WY
00:45 UTCHAIL 0.88Wsw Four CornersWeston, WY
00:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Se Four CornersWeston, WYNUMEROUS TREES BLOWN DOWN.
00:50 UTCHAIL 1.753 Se Four CornersWeston, WY
01:00 UTCHAIL 1.54 Se RochfordPennington, SD1-1.5 INCH HAIL. LAST FOR 10 MINUTES.
01:28 UTCHAIL 13 Se RochfordPennington, SD
01:35 UTCHAIL 14 N Silver CityPennington, SD

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

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.