Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1980

F1 tornado, Thayer County, Nebraska, May 29, 1980

This F1 tornado ran 6.2 miles across Thayer County on May 29, 1980, touching down at 8:45 PM CDT and reaching 17 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 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
Date
May 29, 1980
Touchdown
8:45 PM CDT (01:45 UTC)
Path length
6.2 miles (10.0 km)
Path width
17 yards (16 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Thayer County
Touchdown point
40.170, -97.600
Lift-off point
40.250, -97.530
Record number
367

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), 00:00Z

1.8 hours before the tornado, 159 km from the path. May 30, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1980-05-30Temperature 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 -37514, lifted condensation level 3566 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 1980-05-30The 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 108 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.193958Sfc1 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
-37514 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3566 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
108 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
223 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

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

10.2 hours after it, 159 km from the path. May 30, 1980.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1980-05-30Temperature 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 -117552, lifted condensation level 3587 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 12:00Z on 1980-05-30The 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 77 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
-117552 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3587 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
77 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
134 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beatrice Municip (BIE), 70 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC8564190° 22 kt1002

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1980 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 29, 1980

39 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 292:55 PM CDTF1Laramie, WY to CO14.540$50,000 to $500,000
May 293:00 PM CDTF0Jackson, OK0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 293:42 PM CDTF0Brown, SD0.110
May 294:00 PM CDTF0Spink, SD0.110
May 294:50 PM CDTF2Dixon, NE3.360$500,000 to $5 million
May 295:00 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.110
May 295:13 PM CDTF0Spink, SD0.310
May 295:15 PM CDTF0Lyon, IA0.360
May 295:17 PM CDTF0Spink, SD1.010
May 295:22 PM CDTF1Faribault, MN2.080$50,000 to $500,000
May 295:23 PM CDTF0Beadle, SD1.010
May 295:30 PM CDTF2Cerro Gordo, IA0.530$5,000 to $50,000
May 294:30 PM MDTF1Kit Carson, CO1.040$50 to $500
May 295:37 PM CDTF2Collingsworth, TX16.2160$50 to $500
May 297:12 PM CDTF1Freeborn, MN6.9400$50,000 to $500,000
May 297:35 PM CDTF1Fillmore, NE10.010$500 to $5,000
May 298:00 PM CDTF1Buena Vista, IA4.240$5,000 to $50,000
May 298:16 PM CDTF0Ellsworth, KS0.110
May 298:17 PM CDTF0Barton, KS0.110
May 298:25 PM CDTF1Butler, NE19.6802$500,000 to $5 million
May 298:28 PM CDTF2Jackson, OK0.110$500,000 to $5 million
May 298:35 PM CDTF1Ellsworth, KS0.110$500 to $5,000
May 298:36 PM CDTF1Mower, MN0.110$50,000 to $500,000
May 298:40 PM CDTF0Fillmore, NE0.110
May 299:00 PM CDTF1Webster, IA0.530$5,000 to $50,000
May 299:00 PM CDTF0Howard, IA0.130
May 299:00 PM CDTF0Hardeman, TX0.110
May 299:15 PM CDTF0Yankton, SD1.010
May 299:15 PM CDTF0Yankton, SD1.010
May 299:30 PM CDTF0Dixon, NE0.110under $50
May 299:45 PM CDTF1Hamilton, IA0.130$5,000 to $50,000
May 2910:00 PM CDTF1Harrison, IA1.030$5,000 to $50,000
May 2910:20 PM CDTF1Carroll, IA0.130$5,000 to $50,000
May 2911:00 PM CDTF2Wilbarger, TX13.2100

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.