[Photos] 5+ Years of Extreme Spring Weather Strikes Laramie

Blizzards and floods are signs the grass (and license plates) is turning green in Laramie. With spring comes moisture… lots of it.

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Last Thursday, June 1, Laramie had a flood warning that came with some hail, lots of rain, and some pool-sized puddles sprinkled throughout town.  

Precisely two weeks before that, a tornado.  Or Landspout, apparently.  A funnel cloud on May 18 prompted tornado drills in schools across town and was photographed east of town.  

Extreme weather seems to be the norm these days:

• The flood of August 2022: Almost 3 inches of rain fell in a short amount of time on the 14th, closing several streets and damaging parts of Fox Creek Road.  

• A derecho June 6, 2020. Spanish for “straight ahead,” the National Weather Service says, “A derecho (pronounced similar to "deh-REY-cho") is a widespread, long-lived wind storm that is associated with a band of rapidly moving showers or thunderstorms. Although a derecho can produce destruction similar to the strength of tornadoes, the damage typically is directed in one direction along a relatively straight swath. As a result, the term "straight-line wind damage" sometimes is used to describe derecho damage. By definition, if the wind damage swath extends more than 240 miles (about 400 kilometers) and includes wind gusts of at least 58 mph (93 km/h) or greater along most of its length, then the event may be classified as a derecho.

Image Credit: National Weather Service/Conquer The Storm

The Rocky Mountain Derecho was photographed in South Dakota as it moved northeast from Utah

• Two back-to-back spring break blizzards: March 2020 and March 2019.

• The giant EF3 tornado of June 2018.  This monster had peak winds of 150 mph, stormed over 11 miles, and had a max width of 600 yards–the length of 5 football fields. The twister struck Laramie on June 6 of that year.

RELATED: TORNADO OF THE YEAR HITS THE LARAMIE VALLEY

The summer solstice is just around the corner, quieting blizzards and floods for the moment and ushering in another Wyoming season: wildfire. 

In 2020, the Mullen Fire wreaked havoc through Colorado and headed Northwest, blazing a trail in Albany County, west of Laramie. The fire burned over 176,000 miles of land.