Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1965

F2 tornado, Webster and Adams counties, Nebraska, May 25, 1965

This F2 tornado ran 39.3 miles across Webster and Adams counties on May 25, 1965, touching down at 6:20 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 mphthis tornado

    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 mph

    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
F2
Date
May 25, 1965
Touchdown
6:20 PM GMT-5 (23:20 UTC)
Path length
39.3 miles (63.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
Counties
Webster and Adams counties
Touchdown point
40.030, -98.700
Lift-off point
40.550, -98.380
Record number
443

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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

11.3 hours before the tornado, 197 km from the path. May 25, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1965-05-25Temperature 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 -12441, lifted condensation level 1532 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1965-05-25The 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 32 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-12441 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1532 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
136 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.7 hours after it, 197 km from the path. May 26, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1965-05-26Temperature 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 -10652, lifted condensation level 1461 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1965-05-26The 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 -57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 101 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
-10652 J/kg
Surface CAPE
766 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1461 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
101 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1965 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 25, 1965

33 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 251:30 PM GMT-5F0Scott, KS0.110
May 251:55 PM GMT-5F0York, NE0.210
May 252:45 PM GMT-5F0Lane, KS0.110
May 252:00 PM GMT-6F0Douglas, CO0.110
May 253:00 PM GMT-5F1Norton, KS19.9200$5,000 to $50,000
May 253:15 PM GMT-5F1Harlan, NE35.210$5,000 to $50,000
May 253:30 PM GMT-5F1Pawnee, KS23.910$500 to $5,000
May 254:25 PM GMT-5F0Clark, KS0.5400
May 254:30 PM GMT-5F1Ford, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 254:30 PM GMT-5F0Gray, KS0.110
May 254:35 PM GMT-5F0Ellis, OK0.110
May 255:00 PM GMT-5F1Phillips, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 255:00 PM GMT-5F1Harper, OK0.110
May 255:15 PM GMT-5F0Smith, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 255:30 PM GMT-5F2Smith, KS0.1101$5,000 to $50,000
May 256:00 PM GMT-5F1Dent, MO7.450$50 to $500
May 256:00 PM GMT-5F1Pawnee, KS0.110$500 to $5,000
May 256:00 PM GMT-5F0Motley, TX8.750$50 to $500
May 256:25 PM GMT-5F0Jefferson, NE0.110
May 256:32 PM GMT-5F0Hall, NE0.110
May 257:00 PM GMT-5F0Woodward, OK0.110$50 to $500
May 257:38 PM GMT-5F3Pratt, KS25.32508$50,000 to $500,000
May 258:00 PM GMT-5F0Ellsworth, KS0.8100
May 258:00 PM GMT-5F1Clay, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 258:00 PM GMT-5F2Mitchell, TX2.02001$50,000 to $500,000
May 258:10 PM GMT-5F1Cheyenne, KS0.110$500 to $5,000
May 258:35 PM GMT-5F0Hall, NE0.110
May 258:40 PM GMT-5F0Hemphill, TX0.110
May 258:50 PM GMT-5F2Major, OK0.110$50 to $500
May 259:00 PM GMT-5F2Mahaska, IA2.0300$500 to $5,000
May 259:15 PM GMT-5F0Hamilton, NE0.110
May 2510:40 PM GMT-5F2Cass, IA0.1200$5,000 to $50,000
May 2512:36 AM GMT-5F2Sauk, WI0.3508$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.