Severe storms possible Friday in Albany County, NWS warns
Strong winds, heavy rain and hail could hit Albany County Friday afternoon, with storms most likely to disrupt travel, outdoor plans and property.
Strong to severe storms could move into Albany County Friday afternoon, bringing the kind of wind, rain and hail that can turn a routine trip into a rough drive on the open stretches between Laramie, Centennial and Rock River.
National Weather Service Cheyenne forecasters said strong winds, heavy rain and possibly hail were the main hazards. The office, which serves southeast Wyoming and the western Nebraska Panhandle, said warm temperatures were expected for most of the week, with showers and thunderstorms increasing in coverage each day and severe thunderstorms possible mid to late week.
For Albany County families, that means Friday afternoon and evening are not the time to assume a sunny spell will hold. Travel plans, livestock work and outdoor events can all be forced to change fast when storm cells build and move quickly across the county’s exposed road network. Wind can make highway driving difficult, hail can damage yards and crops, and heavy rain can create short-lived but dangerous conditions on county roads.
The weather service’s Wyoming severe-weather outlook page was also tracking today’s tornado, damaging wind and large hail risks, along with tomorrow’s severe-weather risk, a sign that forecasters were actively updating the threat as the system developed. The same Cheyenne forecast page included a freeze warning for the valleys of Carbon and Albany counties, underscoring how sharply conditions were swinging in the same late-May stretch.
Albany County has seen severe weather before. The National Weather Service’s event summaries list an EF3 tornado in the county on June 6, 2018, along with a severe weather outbreak on June 16-17, 2025. The archive also notes a major hailstorm in Cheyenne on July 29, 2016, and another severe weather outbreak on June 22, 2014.
That history does not make Friday’s storms certain, but it does make the warning relevant. In a county where weather can change quickly from one ridge or valley to the next, the difference between a normal Friday and a disruptive one can come down to a few hours of wind, hail and rain.
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