Strongest Tornado in Wyoming History Slammed Yellowstone in 1987
There's only been one EF4 tornado in Wyoming history and it happened in the summer of 1987. It was a rare monster high-altitude tornado that carved a path of damage from the Teton Wilderness through Yellowstone National Park.
I was not aware of this mammoth twister until I saw a share on Reddit showing the path of all tornados in Wyoming from 1950 through 2019. Pay special attention to the slash in the Yellowstone area.
Wikipedia mentions the Teton-Yellowstone Tornado that slammed the area on July 21, 1987. They state that it was the only EF4-rated tornado that's ever hit Wyoming and is considered one of if not the strongest high-altitude tornadoes in US history.
The American Meteorological Society provides even more staggering statistics about this record-setting twister. It was on the ground for 24 miles and was 1.5 miles wide at its peak.
I have been unable to locate any video of the twister which is not surprising considering it's somewhat remote location between the Teton Wilderness and Yellowstone National Park and that lack of smart phones back in 1987. But, the National Weather Service has a very in-depth paper on what conditions need to be like for a monster tornado like this to develop in our part of America.
Oh, and this EF4 Wyoming tornado in 1987 even crossed the Continental Divide. Incredible.
A TV station out of Denver also did a feature a few years ago about mountain tornadoes which is very interesting.