Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1983

F1 tornado, Banner County, Nebraska, June 18, 1983

This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Banner County on June 18, 1983, touching down at 7:10 PM MDT and reaching 30 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 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
June 18, 1983
Touchdown
7:10 PM MDT (01:10 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Banner County
Touchdown point
41.450, -103.500
Record number
558

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.

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

1.2 hours before the tornado, 177 km from the path. June 19, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1983-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 559 joules per kilogram, CIN -30, lifted condensation level 3572 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 1983-06-19The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
559 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1028 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3572 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
9.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 12:00Z

10.8 hours after it, 177 km from the path. June 19, 1983.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 1983-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 117 joules per kilogram, CIN -393, lifted condensation level 2034 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 1983-06-19The 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 58 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
117 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-393 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2034 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
108 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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1983 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 18, 1983

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 184:19 AM CDTF0Washington, KS0.110under $50
June 185:50 PM CDTF1Keokuk, IA6.120$5,000 to $50,000
June 185:43 PM MDTF0Meade, SD0.110under $50
June 185:43 PM MDTF1Meade, SD0.110under $50
June 186:55 PM CDTF0Butler, KS0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 186:16 PM MDTF1Meade, SD0.110under $50
June 1810:05 PM CDTF0Kay, OK0.110under $50

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.