Cheyenne, Wyo. –
Transcribed from video
Severe weather season has begun in Wyoming, but peak severe activity will only increase heading into the summer months. I spoke with a meteorologist from the national weather service learn more about the science behind Wyoming’s severe weather season.
“Severe weather typically peaks in the month of June, more specifically, mid to late June is when we see our uptick in severe weather…Of course, we still do see severe weather in the months of July and August, but we start to see the frequency of that kind of trend downwards.”
On average, Wyoming will see the bulk of its severe weather activity in the month of June. There is a variety of factors that cause this, but the biggest ingredient for severe weather is moisture.
Meteorologist Shelby Fuller says the wind patterns during the summer months provide the moisture to Wyoming to help fuel severe storms.
“And SE flow is warm, moist air that comes from the Gulf. So we are able to transfer that moisture here into eastern Wyoming, and that moisture, that low to mid-level moisture, supplies the fuel for some of the storms.”
On top of low-level moisture, some other key ingredients to produce severe weather in Wyoming include atmospheric instability and atmospheric lift.
All of these ingredients combine to make June an active weather month in Wyoming, which is why it’s important to always be prepared for severe weather.
“The first thing that we always encourage is for people to have multiple ways to receive severe weather warnings. Whether that be an app on your phone that pushes the severe weather notifications, or if you have a NOAA weather radio.”
Now, the state of Wyoming averages about 300 severe thunderstorm warnings issued every single year, but this year in 2026, we are off to a little bit of a slower start with a total of 15 warnings through May 26th. Reporting from Cheyenne because local matters, I’m Alex Searl, Wyoming News Now.