Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2015

EF0 tornado, Hawk Springs, Wyoming, June 25, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Goshen County on June 25, 2015, touching down at 4:45 PM MDT and reaching 50 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
June 25, 2015
Touchdown
4:45 PM MDT (22:45 UTC)
Lifted
4:48 PM MDT (22:48 UTC)
On the ground
3 minutes
Path length
1.9 miles (3.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Goshen County
Touchdown point
41.707, -104.529
Lift-off point
41.688, -104.502
Record number
1506251645-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms over east central and southeast Wyoming produced large hail, strong winds, heavy rain and a weak tornado.

A landspout tornado touched down in open country and moved southeast. The tornado dissipated after three minutes on the ground. 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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:30 UTC and running to 00:51 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:58 UTC16:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
16:36 UTC17:00 UTCTornado WarningCYS
20:30 UTC00:51 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCYS
22:51 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS

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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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 (KDEN), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 230 km from the path. June 25, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-25Temperature 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 -82792, lifted condensation level 2770 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2015-06-25The 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 84 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
-82792 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2770 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
74 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 230 km from the path. June 26, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2015-06-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 878 joules per kilogram, CIN -106, lifted condensation level 2352 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 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, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2015-06-26The 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 75 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
878 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-106 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3411 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2352 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:42 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
22:20 UTCHAIL 0.55 Ne WheatlandPlatte, WY
22:45 UTCTORNADO15 Wsw Hawk SpringsGoshen, WYSTORM CHASERS OBSERVED A NARROW ROPE TORNADO OVER OPEN COUNTRY IN FAR SOUTHWEST GOSHEN COUNTY LASTING 3 MINUTES FROM 445-448 PM ON JUNE 25.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 25, 2015

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 255:56 PM CDTEF0Hodgeman, KS1.050
June 255:23 PM MDTEF0Morrill, NE1.950

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.