EF2 tornado, Wheatland to Slater, Wyoming, June 7, 2012

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 mph

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

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

June 7, 2012

Touchdown

3:07 PM MDT (21:07 UTC)

Lifted

4:19 PM MDT (22:19 UTC)

On the ground

72 minutes

Path length

20.6 miles (33.1 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

County

Platte County

Touchdown point

42.050, -105.106

Lift-off point

41.850, -104.810

Record number

1206071507-01

41 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CYS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 135 mph.

• Pivot overturned and twisted.
• Trees snapped and uprooted in satellite imagery.
• Trees uprooted in satellite imagery.
• Snapped large branches and downed powerlines.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

Afternoon supercell thunderstorms spawned three tornadoes: two in Laramie County and one in Platte County. The Platte County tornado was rated an EF2 and produced considerable damage and one minor injury.

A large tornado touched down west of Wheatland and moved to the southeast across western Platte County. The tornado remained in contact with the ground for just over an hour before dissipating northeast of Chugwater. An NWS survey team rated the tornado an EF2 with maximum winds estimated between 130 and 135 mph. The damage assessment revealed the most significant damage to be along Olson Road, about 6 miles southwest of Wheatland. An unoccupied mobile home was completely destroyed, with unrecognizable debris spread about 50 yards from the foundation. A poorly constructed modular home with a crawl space was completely swept from its foundation, with parts of the metal frame found one quarter of a mile away. Many outbuildings on various properties were severely damaged or completely destroyed. A well-constructed one to two family home lost a large portion of the roof, but most of the walls remained intact with the exception of the garage. The most significant damage, however, was found near the intersection of Grange and Olson Roads. A very well constructed and recently completed barn was demolished, with debris found more than two miles away. In addition to the building damage, numerous large cottonwood trees were either snapped or uprooted but were not debarked. The tornado also derailed 6 empty rail cars about 6 miles northeast of Chugwater, shortly before it dissipated. The tornado crossed Interstate 25 just south of the Bordeaux exit at about 14:38 MST. No vehicles were affected by the tornado as it crossed the interstate. One person suffered minor injury from flying debris.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:54 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 17:46 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 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 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.

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 90 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:05 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.

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

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.