Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2011
EF0 tornado, Torrington to Huntley, Wyoming, July 2, 2011
From Torrington to Huntley, this EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Goshen County on July 2, 2011, touching down at 7:37 PM MDT and reaching 20 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF0
- Date
- July 2, 2011
- Touchdown
- 7:37 PM MDT (01:37 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:38 PM MDT (01:38 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.0 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Goshen County
- Touchdown point
- 41.920, -104.070
- Lift-off point
- 41.920, -104.070
- Record number
- 1107021937-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Late afternoon and early evening thunderstorms produced large hail, as well as a few tornadoes and flash flooding in Goshen and Converse counties.
A tornado briefly touched down in open range.
A tornado briefly touched down in open range.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
41 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:56 UTC, 41 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 03:25 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:15 UTC | 03:25 UTC | Tornado Watch | CYS |
| 21:15 UTC | 21:40 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 22:42 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 23:30 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 00:04 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 00:22 UTC | 00:59 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 00:44 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 00:56 UTC | 01:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 01:23 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 01:54 UTC | 02:34 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 02:25 UTC | 07:56 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | CYS |
| 02:30 UTC | 02:48 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 07:55 UTC | 15:03 UTC | Flood Warning | CYS |
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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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.
Denver, CO (KDNR), 00:00Z
1.6 hours before the tornado, 239 km from the path. July 3, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 920 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -98 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1401 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2294 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -51 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -12 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -1.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.8 K/km
Denver, CO (KDNR), 12:00Z
10.4 hours after it, 239 km from the path. July 3, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 502 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -304 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 354 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1244 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 3 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 25 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 103 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.2 K/km
The surface observations
Torrington Municipal Airport (TOR), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:53 UTC | 83 | 58 | 120° 10 kt | 18 | 1015.9 | |
| 00:53 UTC | 78 | 60 | 90° 19 kt | 26 | 1013.9 | -TSRA |
| 01:27 UTC | 68 | 62.6 | 330° 16 kt | 23 | 1017.9 | +TSRA |
| 01:48 UTC | 66.2 | 59 | 50° 29 kt | 45 | 1015.2 | TSRA |
| 01:53 UTC | 66 | 60 | 60° 28 kt | 38 | 1015.9 | TSRA |
| 02:03 UTC | 66.2 | 57.2 | 90° 15 kt | 43 | 1016.9 | -TSRA |
| 02:53 UTC | 65 | 55 | 160° 14 kt | 24 | 1018.3 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:36 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:47 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Ne Fort Laramie | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:00 UTC | TORNADO | Lingle | Goshen, WY | TORNADO PICKED UP DUMPSTER IN PARK NEAR LINGLE |
| 01:05 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Torrington | Goshen, WY | DIME TO NICKEL SIZED HAIL |
| 01:09 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Torrington | Goshen, WY | NEAR PORT OF ENTRY AREA |
| 01:17 UTC | HAIL 2 | Torrington | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:18 UTC | HAIL 1 | Torrington | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:18 UTC | TORNADO | 2 S Torrington | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:20 UTC | HAIL 1 | Torrington | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:21 UTC | TSTM WND GST 70 | Torrington | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:29 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 1 S Torrington | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:30 UTC | HAIL 2 | 9 Sse Torrington | Goshen, WY | FROM COCORAHS OBSERVER |
| 01:37 UTC | TORNADO | 2 W Lyman | Goshen, WY | |
| 01:49 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 3 W Lyman | Goshen, WY | FUNNEL APPROXIMATELY 75 FEET OFF THE GROUND |
| 02:11 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 10 Sw Lyman | Goshen, WY | |
| 02:25 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 W Lyman | Goshen, WY | WATER OVER HIGHWAY 92 EAST OF HUNTLEY |
| 02:40 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 9 Se Torrington | Goshen, WY | INTERSECTION OF HIGHWAY 61 AND 92 FLOODED AND CLOSED |
| 02:58 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 3 Ssw Lyman | Goshen, WY | HIGHWAY 158...MILE MARKER 1 FLOODED WITH DEBRIS OVER ROAD |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of July 2, 2011
6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.