Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1992

F1 tornado, Custer County, Nebraska, June 16, 1992

This F1 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Custer County on June 16, 1992, touching down at 6:35 PM CDT and reaching 23 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did under $50 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 16, 1992
Touchdown
6:35 PM CDT (23:35 UTC)
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
23 yards (21 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
under $50
County
Custer County
Touchdown point
41.650, -99.650
Record number
468

The warnings

5 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:30 UTC, 5 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:07 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
23:30 UTC00:00 UTCTornado 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 High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:47 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.

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

0.4 hours after it, 98 km from the path. June 17, 1992.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1992-06-17Temperature 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 -9950, lifted condensation level 1422 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 1992-06-17The 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 -238 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 99 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
-9950 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1422 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
99 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-238 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
171 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1992 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 16, 1992

66 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 161:48 AM CDTF1Dickinson, KS1.073$5,000 to $50,000
June 162:05 AM CDTF1Dickinson, KS1.5100$5,000 to $50,000
June 162:30 PM CDTF2Davison, SD3.073$500 to $5,000
June 162:30 PM CDTF2Davison, SD3.073$500 to $5,000
June 163:03 PM CDTF1Black Hawk, IA4.723$5,000 to $50,000
June 163:23 PM CDTF0Sanborn, SD0.110under $50
June 163:25 PM CDTF2Miner, SD0.5501$5,000 to $50,000
June 163:45 PM CDTF3Miner, SD3.073$500,000 to $5 million
June 163:20 PM MDTF0Box Butte, NE0.120
June 164:35 PM CDTF3Kingsbury, SD4.0100$500,000 to $5 million
June 164:37 PM CDTF0Kingsbury, SD0.110
June 163:51 PM MDTF0Box Butte, NE0.130
June 165:00 PM CDTF5Nobles, MN16.0280135$5 million to $50 million
June 165:15 PM CDTF3Buffalo, SD2.0738$5 million to $50 million
June 165:15 PM CDTF1Brown, NE4.0150$5,000 to $50,000
June 165:18 PM CDTF4Murray, MN7.01603$5 million to $50 million
June 165:30 PM CDTF3Yellow Medicine, MN6.023
June 165:30 PM CDTF2Murray, MN13.040
June 166:00 PM CDTF3Murray, MN12.080
June 166:15 PM CDTF1Rock, NE1.080$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:17 PM CDTF1Custer, NE0.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 166:18 PM CDTF2Lyon, MN2.030
June 166:20 PM CDTF0Burleigh, ND0.110
June 166:23 PM CDTF0Custer, NE0.223
June 166:25 PM CDTF3Redwood, MN16.090
June 166:38 PM CDTF1Boyd, NE1.580$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:50 PM CDTF1Boyd, NE10.080$50,000 to $500,000
June 166:55 PM CDTF1Redwood, MN0.130
June 166:58 PM CDTF2Swift, MN1.513
June 167:03 PM CDTF0Charles Mix, SD0.320
June 167:10 PM CDTF3Redwood, MN13.080
June 167:25 PM CDTF2Redwood, MN12.060
June 167:25 PM CDTF2Redwood, MN8.030
June 167:30 PM CDTF1Redwood, MN6.523
June 167:40 PM CDTF2Redwood, MN5.523
June 167:50 PM CDTF2Renville, MN5.023
June 168:10 PM CDTF0Hutchinson, SD0.323$5,000 to $50,000
June 168:25 PM CDTF2Renville, MN3.013
June 168:30 PM CDTF1McCook, SD0.530$500,000 to $5 million
June 168:30 PM CDTF1McCook, SD0.530$500,000 to $5 million
June 168:30 PM CDTF1Brookings, SD7.030$50,000 to $500,000
June 168:45 PM CDTF1Lake, SD1.030$5,000 to $50,000
June 168:47 PM CDTF1Cedar, NE0.110$5,000 to $50,000
June 168:50 PM CDTF0Clay, SD0.523$500 to $5,000
June 169:00 PM CDTF2Renville, MN2.513
June 169:00 PM CDTF1Pipestone, MN0.513
June 169:00 PM CDTF2Minnehaha, SD5.050$500,000 to $5 million
June 169:10 PM CDTF2Murray, MN4.040
June 169:20 PM CDTF2Murray, MN0.530
June 169:30 PM CDTF3Harrison, IA26.02003$500,000 to $5 million
June 169:40 PM CDTF3Yellow Medicine, MN2.51006$5 million to $50 million
June 169:55 PM CDTF0Sioux, IA0.213$50 to $500
June 1610:30 PM CDTF2Renville, MN2.020
June 1610:30 PM CDTF2Cottonwood, MN7.590
June 1610:48 PM CDTF0Ida, IA0.113$500 to $5,000
June 1611:00 PM CDTF1Brown, MN1.0100$50,000 to $500,000
June 1611:00 PM CDTF2Burt, NE4.0150$5,000 to $50,000
June 1611:01 PM CDTF0Monona, IA0.120$50 to $500
June 1611:05 PM CDTF0Saline, NE0.173
June 1611:10 PM CDTF3Wright, MN10.01208

All 67 of them

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.