Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1990

F0 tornado, Platte County, Nebraska, June 16, 1990

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Platte County on June 16, 1990, touching down at 6:45 PM CDT and reaching 30 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 mphthis tornado

    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 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
F0
Date
June 16, 1990
Touchdown
6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
County
Platte County
Touchdown point
41.700, -97.700
Record number
736

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
07:12 UTC10:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningLBF
00:59 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:59 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 119 km from the path. June 16, 1990.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1990-06-16Temperature 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 -87200, lifted condensation level 3656 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 1990-06-16The 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 241 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
-87200 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
3656 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
237 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1990 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 1990

28 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 166:15 AM CDTF0Polk, IA0.117$50 to $500
June 167:07 AM CDTF0Jasper, IA0.217$500 to $5,000
June 161:33 PM CDTF2Wapello, IA6.553$50,000 to $500,000
June 164:40 PM CDTF0Holt, NE0.223$50,000 to $500,000
June 165:00 PM CDTF1Hancock, IL0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 165:00 PM CDTF0Holt, NE0.123$50,000 to $500,000
June 165:10 PM CDTF0Harlan, NE0.740
June 165:15 PM CDTF1Harlan, NE15.0100$5,000 to $50,000
June 165:25 PM CDTF1Franklin, NE2.050$500 to $5,000
June 165:30 PM CDTF1Sherman, NE4.050$5,000 to $50,000
June 166:10 PM CDTF1Clay, SD9.060$500,000 to $5 million
June 166:30 PM CDTF0Washington, MN0.110
June 166:35 PM CDTF0Nuckolls, NE0.530
June 166:38 PM CDTF0Smith, KS0.110
June 166:45 PM CDTF0Boone, NE0.530$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:45 PM CDTF0Webster, NE0.740
June 167:10 PM CDTF1Madison, NE1.530$500,000 to $5 million
June 168:07 PM CDTF0Washington, MN0.110
June 168:30 PM CDTF1Nuckolls, NE2.050$50,000 to $500,000
June 168:40 PM CDTF1Thayer, NE15.0100$50,000 to $500,000
June 168:59 PM CDTF0Appanoose, IA0.117$500 to $5,000
June 169:17 PM CDTF0Appanoose, IA0.120$500 to $5,000
June 169:25 PM CDTF1Buena Vista, IA0.430$50,000 to $500,000
June 169:52 PM CDTF0Wapello, IA0.117$500 to $5,000
June 1610:40 PM CDTF0Wapello, IA0.220$50,000 to $500,000
June 1610:40 PM CDTF0Keokuk, IA0.117$500 to $5,000
June 1611:30 PM CDTF0Pottawattamie, IA0.320$5,000 to $50,000
June 1611:54 PM CDTF1Floyd, IA5.030$50,000 to $500,000

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.