A landspout tornado touched down in Sublette County, Wyoming, on Saturday, June 20, 2026, as severe storms moved through the region [1, 2, 3].
The event is notable due to the rarity of landspouts in the area and the immediate infrastructure impact caused by the accompanying weather system.
Footage of the swirling vortex was recorded by a local sheriff [1, 2, 3]. Meteorologist Don Day said the phenomenon was a landspout, a specific type of tornado that forms in relatively weak thunderstorms without a pre-existing rotating updraft [1, 2].
While the landspout was the most visually striking element of the day, the broader storm system brought significant disruption to the county. Reports indicate that the storms caused more than 700 power outages [3].
Sublette County officials and weather monitors tracked the storms as they progressed across the landscape. The combination of the rare tornado sighting and the widespread electrical failures highlighted the volatility of the regional weather patterns during this period.
Local residents were urged to remain vigilant as the storm cells moved through the U.S. interior. The recording by the sheriff serves as a primary record of the event's intensity and the specific nature of the atmospheric instability that led to the landspout's formation [1, 2].
“A landspout tornado touched down in Sublette County, Wyoming, on Saturday, June 20, 2026”
The occurrence of a landspout in Wyoming, coupled with significant power outages, underscores the risk that non-supercell tornadoes pose to rural infrastructure. Unlike traditional tornadoes, landspouts develop from surface boundaries and can appear rapidly, making them difficult to predict with standard radar, which increases the reliance on local visual reporting for public safety.
