Tornadoes · United States · Wyoming · 2019
EF0 tornado, Bill, Wyoming, June 19, 2019
This EF0 tornado ran 12.6 miles across Converse County on June 19, 2019, touching down at 7:50 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.
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
- June 19, 2019
- Touchdown
- 7:50 PM MDT (01:50 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:06 PM MDT (02:06 UTC)
- On the ground
- 16 minutes
- Path length
- 12.6 miles (20.3 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Converse County
- Touchdown point
- 43.230, -105.240
- Lift-off point
- 43.120, -105.040
- Record number
- 1906191950-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong, supercell thunderstorm tracked across Niobrara and Converse Counties producing a roughly 13 mile long tornado from Bill producing damage consistent with EF-0 winds. Large hail and damaging winds were also reported with this long-lived storm.
Wyoming State Highway Patrol reported tornado on the outskirts of Bill with corresponding video confirmation of a visible condensation funnel east of the hotel in town. A later report via social media presented photographic evidence of tornadic damage to a manufactured home east-southeast of Bill with a corner of the roof peeled off consistent with EF-0 damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
6 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:44 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:48 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 01:22 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CYS |
| 01:44 UTC | 02:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 02:08 UTC | 02:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | CYS |
| 02:28 UTC | 02:40 UTC | Tornado 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:17 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 (KUNR), 00:00Z
1.8 hours before the tornado, 207 km from the path. June 20, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 415 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -60 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1552 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1727 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 36 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 63 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 183 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 4.8
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 8.3 K/km
Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 12:00Z
10.2 hours after it, 207 km from the path. June 20, 2019.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -78354 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1329 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 45 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -84 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -13 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.0 K/km
The radar
The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 214 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:58 UTC | HAIL 1 | 15 Ssw Wright | Campbell, WY | |
| 01:40 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 11 Nne Bill | Converse, WY | HIGHWAY PATROL REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD AT HIGHWAY 59, MILE MARKER 44 AT 740 PM. |
| 01:40 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 8 Ne Bill | Converse, WY | RECEIVED PHOTO VIA FACEBOOK OF HAIL RANGING FROM QUARTER TO GOLF BALL SIZE. |
| 01:43 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Se Bill | Converse, WY | A TORNADO WAS REPORTED ON THE GROUND AT 757 PM BY CONVERSE COUNTY DISPATCH ON HIGHWAY 59 AT MILE MARKER 30. |
| 01:45 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Bill | Converse, WY | CONVERSE COUNTY DISPATCH REPORTED A FUNNEL CLOUD OVER BILL, WY AT 745 PM. |
| 01:45 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 2 N Bill | Converse, WY | A TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED QUARTER TO HALF DOLLAR SIZE HAIL AND BRANCHES DOWN IN THEIR PARKING LOT AS OF 745 PM. |
| 01:50 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Bill | Converse, WY | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT LOCATION FROM BILL. THE TRAVEL LODGE IN BILL REPORTED A TORNADO TOUCH DOWN IN THEIR BACK PARKING LOT AT ABOUT 750 PM. |
| 01:50 UTC | TORNADO | Bill | Converse, WY | THE TRAVEL LODGE IN BILL REPORTED A TORNADO TOUCH DOWN IN THEIR BACK PARKING LOT AT ABOUT 750 PM. |
| 01:57 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Se Bill | Converse, WY | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 4 SE BILL. A TORNADO WAS REPORTED ON THE GROUND AT 757 PM BY CONVERSE COUNTY DISPATCH ON HIGHWAY 59 AT MILE MARKER 30. |
| 01:59 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ene Bill | Converse, WY | HIGHWAY PATROL REPORTED A TORNADO ON THE GROUND ON HIGHWAY 59, MILE MARKER 33 AT 759 PM. |
| 02:03 UTC | TORNADO | 13 Ese Bill | Converse, WY | IMAGE RECEIVED VIA FACEBOOK OF ROOF DAMAGE TO RESIDENCE. TIME BASED OFF OF RADAR. |
| 02:25 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wnw Lance Creek | Niobrara, WY | REPORT OF DAMAGE TO AREA BUSINESS. |
| 02:40 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Nnw Lance Creek | Niobrara, WY | REPORT OF ROOF DAMAGE AT LANCE CREEK POST OFFICE. TIME ESTIMATED BASED OFF OF RADAR. |
| 02:44 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | 1 Nnw Lance Creek | Niobrara, WY | DEPUTY MEASURED 60+ MPH WIND IN LANCE CREEK. TIME ESTIMATED BASED OFF OF RADAR. |
| 03:12 UTC | HAIL 1 | 4 N Rochelle | Weston, WY | |
| 03:20 UTC | TSTM WND GST 65 | 7 Ene Rochelle | Weston, WY |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2019 tornado in WyomingEvery tornado in Wyoming since 1950Warnings in force in Wyoming nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 19, 2019
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 19 | 2:21 AM CDT | EF1 | Seminole, OK | 1.0 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| June 19 | 6:03 AM CDT | EF0 | Harrison, TX | 0.2 | 70 | |||
| June 19 | 11:45 AM CDT | EF0 | Jefferson Davis Parish, LA | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 6:10 PM CDT | EF0 | Montgomery, TN | 1.3 | 100 | $15,000 | ||
| June 19 | 6:24 PM CDT | EF1 | McCurtain, OK | 0.4 | 75 | $50,000 | ||
| June 19 | 6:40 PM CDT | EF0 | Christian, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 7:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Moultrie, IL | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| June 19 | 7:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Marion, IL | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 19 | 6:56 PM MDT | EF1 | Johnson, WY | 4.1 | 250 | $2,000 | ||
| June 19 | 10:47 PM CDT | EF2 | Bossier Parish, LA | 1.4 | 175 | $350,000 |
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.