Torrington storm brings spring tornado

TORRINGTON (WNE) — Goshen County saw its first glimpse of severe spring weather last Thursday afternoon with scattered storms first producing land spouts, then a tornado.

The National Weather Service in Cheyenne began seeing storms develop at roughly 2:45 p.m. on April 25 along the Wyoming-Nebraska state line, which later developed into a 3:11 p.m. tornado warning for the area.

“Around 3:05 p.m. we started hearing reports of possible land spouts,” said Cheyenne meteorologist Matthew Brothers. “It was really a stretching of rotation into the atmosphere from that boundary. We then started getting reports as it merged into a conservative tornado, with circulation developing over the Henry and Lyman area.”

Brothers added further reports of storms producing both quarter and golf ball-sized hail, but with no current reports of severe damages or injuries.

“It was short-lived, but the storm still produced a few funnel clouds in the Henry and Morrill area,” Brothers said.

The Cheyenne meteorologist stressed to locals the importance of reporting any severe or potentially dangerous weather they may see.

“We did receive a lot of calls yesterday of additional reports which were extremely helpful,” he said. “As far as the rotation of the tornado, which was the second event, we were able to detect rotations with the storm. It was weaker than our initial thresholds, but definitely hearing those reports helped us get warnings out to protect lives.”

This story was published on May 1 ,2024.