Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1965

F1 tornado, Logan, Thomas and Cherry counties, Nebraska, May 8, 1965

This F1 tornado ran 89.8 miles across Logan, Thomas and Cherry counties on May 8, 1965, touching down at 6:00 PM GMT-5 and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F1
Date
May 8, 1965
Touchdown
6:00 PM GMT-5 (23:00 UTC)
Path length
89.8 miles (144.5 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Logan, Thomas and Cherry counties
Touchdown point
41.480, -100.500
Lift-off point
42.780, -100.500
Record number
265

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

11.0 hours before the tornado, 112 km from the path. May 8, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1965-05-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -179, lifted condensation level 595 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1965-05-08The 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 18 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-179 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
595 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
55 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.0 hours after it, 112 km from the path. May 9, 1965.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1965-05-09Temperature 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 -13232, lifted condensation level 2823 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 1965-05-09The 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 -109 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 67 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
-13232 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2823 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
67 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-109 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
65 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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The other tornadoes of May 8, 1965

37 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 83:00 AM GMT-6F2Weld, CO1.017$5,000 to $50,000
May 82:15 PM GMT-5F1Waukesha, WI2.010$50,000 to $500,000
May 83:00 PM GMT-5F0Cotton, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 84:15 PM GMT-5F1Montgomery, KS1.5300$500 to $5,000
May 85:00 PM GMT-5F0Buffalo, SD0.1102
May 86:00 PM GMT-4F1Williamsburg, SC0.850$5,000 to $50,000
May 85:00 PM GMT-5F3Howard, NE10.210
May 85:00 PM GMT-5F1Osage, OK0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 85:25 PM GMT-5F4Howard, NE78.910
May 85:30 PM GMT-5F2Rock, NE44.910
May 85:40 PM GMT-5F3Thayer, NE40.110
May 86:00 PM GMT-5F1Cass, NE0.110
May 86:00 PM GMT-5F3Holt, NE44.810$5 million to $50 million
May 86:15 PM GMT-5F1Crawford, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
May 86:15 PM GMT-5F5Tripp, SD30.11,7601$500,000 to $5 million
May 86:23 PM GMT-5F2Tripp, SD0.120
May 86:30 PM GMT-5F2Brown, NE4.110
May 86:30 PM GMT-5F2Brown, NE9.010
May 86:30 PM GMT-5F4Hall, NE125.710453$5 million to $50 million
May 86:30 PM GMT-5F1Hamilton, NE0.110
May 86:35 PM GMT-5F1Hamilton, NE7.210
May 87:00 PM GMT-5F3Gregory, SD1.520$500 to $5,000
May 87:00 PM GMT-5F0Boyd, NE0.110
May 87:00 PM GMT-5F2Platte, NE24.010
May 87:30 PM GMT-5F2Miner, SD3.3243$5,000 to $50,000
May 87:30 PM GMT-5F1Sully, SD0.110
May 87:30 PM GMT-5F1Wayne, NE41.510
May 88:00 PM GMT-5F2Clay, SD4.510$5,000 to $50,000
May 88:00 PM GMT-5F2Brule, SD4.3100$5,000 to $50,000
May 88:00 PM GMT-5F0Potter, SD0.110
May 88:00 PM GMT-6F0Stanley, SD0.110
May 89:30 PM GMT-5F2Sebastian, AR5.11008$50,000 to $500,000
May 810:00 PM GMT-5F1McIntosh, OK0.110$500 to $5,000
May 810:10 PM GMT-5F0Love, OK0.110
May 810:32 PM GMT-5F0Potter, SD0.110
May 810:25 PM GMT-6F0Dewey, SD0.110
May 810:35 PM GMT-6F0Corson, SD0.110

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.