Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2014

EF0 tornado, Green River Lakes, Wyoming, May 31, 2014

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Sublette County on May 31, 2014, touching down at 1:34 PM MDT and reaching 30 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
EF0
Date
May 31, 2014
Touchdown
1:34 PM MDT (19:34 UTC)
Lifted
1:36 PM MDT (19:36 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sublette County
Touchdown point
43.340, -110.006
Lift-off point
43.344, -110.004
Record number
1405311334-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance moved across Wyoming ahead of a broad trough across the Pacific Northwest and Great Basin. As the disturbance tracked northeast it helped to trigger thunderstorms over mainly western and northern portions of the state. The main hazard was hail with at least a few reports of one inch diameter stones. In Sublette County, a tornado touched down briefly on Dollar Lake near Green River Lakes before it lifted.

A tornado touched down briefly on Dollar Lake. The tornado sucked up water from the lake before lifting. 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 16:28 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

7.6 hours before the tornado, 134 km from the path. May 31, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 12:00Z on 2014-05-31Temperature 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 -286, lifted condensation level 2249 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2014-05-31The 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 38 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-286 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2249 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
88 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
130 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Riverton, WY (KRIW), 00:00Z

4.4 hours after it, 134 km from the path. June 1, 2014.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Riverton, WY at 00:00Z on 2014-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 10 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 4114 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2014-06-01The 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 29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 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
10 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
346 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4114 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
10.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Dubois (DUB), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:35 UTC6835.6120° 6 kt1017.3
17:55 UTC6835.6130° 8 kt1016.9
18:15 UTC69.83280° 4 kt141016.9
18:35 UTC69.830.2170° 5 kt1016.6
18:55 UTC69.819.4220° 20 kt271015.9
19:15 UTC64.424.8250° 6 kt1016.6
19:35 UTC62.623260° 6 kt321017.3VCTS
19:55 UTC53.632340° 13 kt271017.3-VCTSRA
20:15 UTC51.837.4290° 10 kt1017.6-TSRA
20:35 UTC51.841110° 3 kt1016.9
20:55 UTC51.839.2210° 7 kt1016.6-VCTSRA
21:15 UTC57.237.4180° 3 kt1016.3

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

The radar

The Riverton/Lander radar (KRIW), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:34 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
19:30 UTCTORNADO34 Nnw PinedaleSublette, WYREPORT AND FACEBOOK PICTURE OF BRIEF TORNADO OVER DOLLAR LAKE. WATER WAS LIFTED FROM THE LAKE INTO THE FUNNEL.
19:39 UTCFUNNEL CLOUDMernaSublette, WYFACEBOOK PICTURE OF A HIGH BASED FUNNEL CLOUD. RECEIVED A SIMILAR OVER THE PHONE REPORT FROM A SPOTTER IN PINEDALE.
20:30 UTCTORNADO34 Nnw PinedaleSublette, WYREPORT AND FACEBOOK PICTURE OF BRIEF TORNADO OVER DOLLAR LAKE. WATER WAS LIFTED FROM THE LAKE INTO THE FUNNEL.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 31, 2014

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 3110:30 AM EDTEF0Charleston, SC0.130
May 312:55 PM MDTEF0Rosebud, MT0.125
May 317:15 PM MDTEF0Custer, MT0.125

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.