The 33 Year Anniversary of the 1979 Cheyenne Tornado - KGWN –Cheyenne, WY– Scottsbluff, NE News,Weather, Sports

The 33 Year Anniversary of the 1979 Cheyenne Tornado

   On July 16th, 1979 a tornado ripped through parts of Cheyenne. The tornado touched down at 3:25 PM approximately 3 miles west-northwest of the Cheyenne airport and tracked across North Cheyenne to the Buffalo Ridge subdivision. The tornado would make an eight mile-long path across Cheyenne damaging over 500 homes, 140 of which were completely destroyed.

According to the Associated Press a 14 month old boy, David Mckinnon, died of head injuries when his family's mobile home was hit by the twister. At least 37 other people were injured from the storm. The storm still stands as the most damaging tornado in Wyoming's history with $22 million in damage done to the city, $12 million of which was done to the airport where four C-130 aircraft and a bunch of National Guard Equipment was damaged.