Winds reach 111-135 mph during weekend tornado

CHEYENNE (WNE) -– The National Weather Service ranked Sunday’s tornado that damaged eight homes near Federal as a two out of five on a scale used to rank tornado damage.

The winds that ripped the roof off at least two homes topped out at 111-135 miles per hour when it passed through the area northwest of Cheyenne, but the tornado could have been even stronger after it left Federal.

Wind speeds are almost impossible to estimate without surveying damage, said Chad Hahn, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

“It is likely that the tornado continued to occur even outside of what we have included in our report, but we didn’t have any damage in that area, so we couldn’t rate it,” he said.

And despite the fact that three tornadoes touched down in Laramie County over the weekend, such activity is normal for this time of year, meteorologists say.

“Late May and early June are our historical severe weather season for this spring period here across Cheyenne, southeast Wyoming and western Nebraska,” said Mike Heuer, a meteorologist with DayWeather Inc.

Historically, the biggest tornado on record to hit Cheyenne occurred in mid-July 1979, Hahn said.

“Last year, we had the most notable tornado outbreak in history on June 12,” Hahn said. “The number (of tornadoes) that we saw that day was unmatched.”