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At a Glance An especially photogenic tornado touched down near Laramie, Wyoming, on Wednesday.

Damage to some structures, power poles, power lines and fences was reported, but there were no injuries.

The National Weather Service rated this tornado an EF3, the second in Wyoming in less than a week.



A tornado north of Laramie, Wyoming, Wednesday afternoon, became the state's second EF3 tornado in less than a week, damaging structures and wowing storm chasers and residents, who captured photos and videos of it.

A team from the National Weather Service in Cheyenne investigated the damage Thursday, and found a swath of grass scoured out of the ground roughly one-third of a mile wide, consistent with EF3 damage.

The NWS-Cheyenne team also found galvanized steel utility poles bent 90 degrees at the base and wooden power poles snapped by this EF3 tornado about 10 miles north of Laramie. Winds in the tornado were estimated up to 150 mph.

The tornado first touched down about eight miles north of Laramie around 5:43 p.m. MDT and lasted roughly 53 minutes for a distance of about 11 miles, according to the National Weather Service.

(MORE: Why Rating Tornadoes Can Be Difficult in Rural Locations )

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://s.w-x.co/lar-wyo-tor-6jun18-shear-tracks.gif" srcset="https://s.w-x.co/lar-wyo-tor-6jun18-shear-tracks.gif 400w, https://s.w-x.co/lar-wyo-tor-6jun18-shear-tracks.gif 800w" > Radar-detected wind shear tracks associated with the tornado north of Laramie, Wyoming, on June 6, 2018. These tracks may not necessarily correlate to the exact paths of tornadoes, as determined by the National Weather Service.

The damage survey also found a second so-called satellite tornado formed just two miles south of the EF3 tornado.

This second tornado, rated EF2, lifted a garage off its foundation in the Antelope Ridge Loop subdivision north of Laramie. Its path was only 0.6 mile, but it was estimated to be on the ground for about 22 minutes.

(MORE: How Tornadoes Are Rated )

Wyoming F/EF3 Tornadoes Are Rare

Wednesday's EF3 tornado was the strongest on record in Albany County, Wyoming , in records dating to 1950, according to NOAA's storm events database.

The most destructive of these prior Albany County tornadoes was a May 22, 2008, EF2 tornado, which tracked across the northern and eastern sections of Laramie and caused an estimated $300,000 in damage and injured one person.

The satellite tornado rated EF2 was only the second F/EF2 rated in Albany County's 67-year record, as well.

Less than a week earlier, the state had its first F/EF3 tornado since 1987 . That tornado damaged homes near the northeast Wyoming city of Gillette.

Given the low population density, there's a lower probability a tornado in Wyoming will damage structures or even trees in parts of the state given the open rangeland to allow the NWS to rate a tornado. In previous decades, some tornadoes over open country may have gone unreported.

With that disclaimer in mind, F/EF3 tornadoes in Wyoming are quite rare.

Again, according to the NOAA storm events database, only nine other F/EF3 or stronger tornadoes had been documented in Wyoming since 1950 . We've just had two such tornadoes in the first six days of June 2018.

The strongest Wyoming tornado on record was an F4 tornado in the Tetons just east of Jackson on July 21, 1987, which tore a 24-mile long path, leading to $2.5 million in damage.

One of the Most Photogenic Tornadoes of 2018

Many in Laramie saw these tornadoes, including those on the University of Wyoming campus, which is home to a graduate program in atmospheric science .

<img class="styles__noscript__2rw2y" src="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/lar-torn-from-uwyo-6jun18.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0" srcset="https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/lar-torn-from-uwyo-6jun18.jpg?v=at&w=485&h=273&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 400w, https://dsx.weather.com/util/image/w/lar-torn-from-uwyo-6jun18.jpg?v=ap&w=980&h=551&api=7db9fe61-7414-47b5-9871-e17d87b8b6a0 800w" > A tornado north of Laramie, Wyoming, is seen from the University of Wyoming's War Memorial Stadium in Laramie on June 6, 2018. (Amber and Chris Klemt) (Amber and Chris Klemt)

A more classic light-colored tube embedded in the overall supercell could be seen from downtown Laramie, as captured by Lauren Jaeger and shared by Maggie Mullen, a reporter for Wyoming Public Radio.

The tornado was seen by those traveling along Interstate 80 looking north, as was captured in this Wyoming DOT cam on the west side of Laramie.

When viewed from a closer vantage point, the tornado took on the appearance of a gigantic swirl of dust, as residents Chris Hogan and Gina Spadafora Gibson documented.

A timelapse clearly showed not just the tornado, but also the rotating mesocyclone of the supercell responsible for spawning the tornado.

Great visibility over the High Plains with few trees, cities or other obstructions can make eastern Wyoming tornadoes quite photogenic.

Another factor in play was the tornado's much slower forward speed, compared to tornadoes in other parts of the U.S. earlier in the spring, which gave those in the path more time to seek shelter.

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED Tornado Warning National Weather Service Cheyenne WY 608 PM MDT WED JUN 6 2018 The National Weather Service in Cheyenne has issued a * Tornado Warning for... East central Albany County in southeastern Wyoming... This does not include the city of Laramie. * Until 630 PM MDT * At 607 PM MDT, a confirmed tornado was located 7 miles south of Baldy Peak, or 9 miles north of Laramie, moving east at 15 mph .

Above: A tornado warning issued June 6, 2018, with the forward speed in bold. (NWS-Cheyenne)

In nearby Goshen County in 2009, a tornado was captured live on The Weather Channel. It was sampled by the VORTEX2 field program .

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been an incurable weather geek since a tornado narrowly missed his childhood home in Wisconsin at age 7. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter and subscribe to The Weather Channel podcast wherever you get your podcasts.