Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2016
EF1 tornado, Gillette to Rozet, Wyoming, August 7, 2016
From Gillette to Rozet, this EF1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Campbell County on August 7, 2016, touching down at 7:55 PM MDT and reaching 365 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 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
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
- EF1
- Date
- August 7, 2016
- Touchdown
- 7:55 PM MDT (01:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:59 PM MDT (01:59 UTC)
- On the ground
- 4 minutes
- Path length
- 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
- Path width
- 365 yards (334 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Campbell County
- Touchdown point
- 44.289, -105.364
- Lift-off point
- 44.297, -105.335
- Record number
- 1608071955-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A severe thunderstorm tracked eastward across central Campbell County, producing hail and gusty winds east of Gillette. A tornado briefly touched down near Rozet.
About a dozen homes in the Freedom Hills subdivision were damaged by a EF-1 tornado. A fifth wheel camper was rolled down a hill.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:50 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | UNR |
| 01:47 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | UNR |
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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:00 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 (KRAP), 00:00Z
1.9 hours before the tornado, 198 km from the path. August 8, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 966 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -124 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1773 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1514 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 72 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 55 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.5 K/km
Rapid City, SD (KRAP), 12:00Z
10.1 hours after it, 198 km from the path. August 8, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 80 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -340 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 91 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1984 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 36 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 14 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The surface observations
Gillette (GCC), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:55 UTC | 130° 12 kt | |||||
| 00:00 UTC | 130° 14 kt | |||||
| 00:05 UTC | 140° 12 kt | |||||
| 00:10 UTC | 140° 14 kt | |||||
| 00:15 UTC | 140° 13 kt | |||||
| 00:20 UTC | 130° 11 kt | |||||
| 00:25 UTC | 150° 12 kt | |||||
| 00:30 UTC | 160° 11 kt | 1010.8 | ||||
| 00:33 UTC | 86 | 48 | 160° 11 kt | 1010.8 | VCTS | |
| 00:35 UTC | 150° 9 kt | |||||
| 00:40 UTC | 140° 9 kt | |||||
| 00:45 UTC | 140° 7 kt | |||||
| 00:50 UTC | 150° 7 kt | 1010.8 | ||||
| 00:53 UTC | 84 | 53 | 160° 8 kt | 1011.2 | TS | |
| 00:55 UTC | 150° 9 kt | -RA | ||||
| 01:00 UTC | 150° 12 kt | -RA | ||||
| 01:05 UTC | 100° 6 kt | 1011.2 | RA | |||
| 01:10 UTC | 1011.5 | RA | ||||
| 01:12 UTC | 69.8 | 60.8 | 240° 24 kt | 1010.8 | +TSRA | |
| 01:15 UTC | +RA | |||||
| 01:16 UTC | 67 | 60 | 240° 14 kt | 33 | 1012.2 | +TSRA |
| 01:20 UTC | 0° 0 kt | +RA FG | ||||
| 01:25 UTC | 66 | 60 | 1011.9 | -TSRA | ||
| 01:29 UTC | 67 | 60 | 80° 10 kt | 1012.5 | -TSRA | |
| 01:30 UTC | 70° 10 kt | 1012.2 | RA | |||
| 01:35 UTC | 10° 9 kt | 14 | RA | |||
| 01:37 UTC | 72 | 57 | 40° 16 kt | 33 | 1012.9 | +TSRA |
| 01:40 UTC | +RA | |||||
| 01:44 UTC | 65 | 61 | 340° 19 kt | 32 | 1012.5 | -TSRA BR |
| 01:45 UTC | -RA BR | |||||
| 01:50 UTC | 64.4 | 59 | 310° 18 kt | 29 | 1012.2 | VCTS -RA |
| 01:53 UTC | 64 | 59 | 300° 19 kt | 28 | 1012.5 | VCTS -RA |
| 01:55 UTC | -RA | |||||
| 02:00 UTC | 64 | 59 | 320° 14 kt | 26 | 1013.5 | VCTS |
| 02:05 UTC | 300° 10 kt | |||||
| 02:10 UTC | 310° 12 kt | 1014.2 | ||||
| 02:15 UTC | 340° 14 kt | |||||
| 02:20 UTC | 30° 12 kt | |||||
| 02:25 UTC | 30° 14 kt | |||||
| 02:28 UTC | 64 | 60 | 30° 14 kt | 1011.9 | ||
| 02:30 UTC | 20° 13 kt | 1012.2 | ||||
| 02:35 UTC | 10° 11 kt | |||||
| 02:40 UTC | 20° 9 kt | |||||
| 02:45 UTC | 10° 6 kt | 1012.9 | ||||
| 02:50 UTC | 80° 5 kt | 1013.2 | ||||
| 02:53 UTC | 64 | 61 | 100° 3 kt | 1012.9 | ||
| 02:55 UTC | 120° 3 kt | |||||
| 03:00 UTC | 0° 0 kt | |||||
| 03:05 UTC | 0° 0 kt | |||||
| 03:10 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1012.9 | ||||
| 03:15 UTC | 0° 0 kt | |||||
| 03:20 UTC | 0° 0 kt | |||||
| 03:25 UTC | 0° 0 kt | |||||
| 03:30 UTC | 0° 0 kt | 1012.9 | ||||
| 03:35 UTC | 10° 8 kt | |||||
| 03:40 UTC | 20° 4 kt | |||||
| 03:45 UTC | 20° 5 kt | |||||
| 03:50 UTC | 40° 4 kt | 1013.9 | ||||
| 03:53 UTC | 65 | 61 | 3 kt | 1013.9 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 202 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:54 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:40 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | 16 Wsw Downtown Gillett | Campbell, WY | |
| 01:24 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | 2 Ene Weston | Campbell, WY | |
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 7 E Downtown Gillette | Campbell, WY | ABOUT A DOZEN HOMES SUSTAINED DAMAGE FROM GUSTY WINDS. |
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 7 E Downtown Gillette | Campbell, WY | MOBILE HOME ROOF BLOWN OFF...CAMPERS TURNED OVER... POWER LINES DOWN |
| 01:55 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 7 E Downtown Gillette | Campbell, WY | |
| 01:55 UTC | TORNADO | 7 E Downtown Gillette | Campbell, WY | PRELIMINARY EF1 TORNADO DAMAGED ABOUT A DOZEN HOMES IN THE FREEDOM HILLS SUBDIVISION ABOUT 1 -2 MILES EAST OF WYODAK SUNDAY NIGHT. |
| 02:05 UTC | TSTM WND GST 56 | 4 Ese Rozet | Campbell, WY | |
| 02:05 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 Ese Rozet | Campbell, WY |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 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.