Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1963

F3 tornado, Pierce County, Nebraska, May 12, 1963

This F3 tornado ran 12.8 miles across Pierce County on May 12, 1963, touching down at 4:30 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mphthis tornado

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F3, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
May 12, 1963
Touchdown
4:30 PM GMT-5 (21:30 UTC)
Path length
12.8 miles (20.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Pierce County
Touchdown point
42.380, -97.470
Lift-off point
42.500, -97.270
Record number
166

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

9.5 hours before the tornado, 150 km from the path. May 12, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1963-05-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -9148, lifted condensation level 3598 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1963-05-12The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 119 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9148 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3598 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
119 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
208 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 150 km from the path. May 13, 1963.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1963-05-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -35842, lifted condensation level 3571 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1963-05-13The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35842 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3571 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
18 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
37 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Norfolk (OFK), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:00 UTC8266160° 16 kt999DZ
21:00 UTC8566270° 25 kt998.3DZ
22:00 UTC7055290° 28 kt1000.3DZ
23:00 UTC6754290° 23 kt1002.4DZ

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1963 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 12, 1963

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 124:45 PM GMT-5F2Woodbury, IA15.250$5,000 to $50,000
May 127:45 PM GMT-5F1Guthrie, IA0.110$5,000 to $50,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.