This was a rare treat: a supercell spinning over northern Wyoming’s arid yet starkly beautiful Bighorn Basin. The basin is surrounded on all side by mountains, including the lofty Bighorns to the east, with only a very narrow gap in the north connecting it to the Great Plains of southern Montana. As such, very little precipitation falls here, with storms mostly staying in the mountains or over the Plains. However, a northerly low-level flow component can allow at least marginally favorable moisture to advect into the basin a few times some late springs and summers when enough vertical shear is present to support supercells. Lift under such scenarios comes from the Absaroka Mountains to the west—on the other side of which lies Yellowstone and Gran Teton National Parks. This storm fired in the southern Absarokas and slowly got drier and higher-based (and more sculpted) as it moved northeast, dissipating soon after this shot, while a large and outflow-dominant multicell storm cluster congealed to the west and southwest.
11 WSW Worland WY (6 Jun 18) Looking WNW
44.0016, -108.1813Bighorn Basin Supercell
This was a rare treat: a supercell spinning over northern Wyoming’s arid yet starkly beautiful Bighorn Basin. The basin is surrounded on all side by mountains, including the lofty Bighorns to the east, with only a very narrow gap in the north connecting it to the Great Plains of southern Montana. As such, very little precipitation falls here, with storms mostly staying in the mountains or over the Plains. However, a northerly low-level flow component can allow at least marginally favorable moisture to advect into the basin a few times some late springs and summers when enough vertical shear is present to support supercells. Lift under such scenarios comes from the Absaroka Mountains to the west—on the other side of which lies Yellowstone and Gran Teton National Parks. This storm fired in the southern Absarokas and slowly got drier and higher-based (and more sculpted) as it moved northeast, dissipating soon after this shot, while a large and outflow-dominant multicell storm cluster congealed to the west and southwest.
11 WSW Worland WY (6 Jun 18) Looking WNW
44.0016, -108.1813