Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1978

F1 tornado, Brown County, Nebraska, June 21, 1978

This F1 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Brown County on June 21, 1978, touching down at 7:15 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 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, estimated from the damage record rather than surveyed
Date
June 21, 1978
Touchdown
7:15 PM CDT (00:15 UTC)
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Brown County
Touchdown point
42.570, -99.980
Record number
464

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), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 168 km from the path. June 22, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1978-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1049 joules per kilogram, CIN -191, lifted condensation level 1228 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 00:00Z on 1978-06-22The 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 52 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 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
1049 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-191 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1812 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1228 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
188 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.7 hours after it, 168 km from the path. June 22, 1978.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1978-06-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1121 joules per kilogram, CIN -287, lifted condensation level 638 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 1978-06-22The 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 67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
1121 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-287 J/kg
Surface CAPE
432 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
638 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
197 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
3.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Ainsworth Munici (ANW), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC7958180° 15 kt221012.9
00:00 UTC776150° 10 kt151014.9

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1978 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 21, 1978

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 2112:15 PM CDTF1Canadian, OK1.540$5,000 to $50,000
June 2110:15 PM CDTF1Valley, NE0.220$500 to $5,000

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.