Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1994

F1 tornado, Hastings To to Juniata, Nebraska, June 7, 1994

From Hastings To to Juniata, this F1 tornado ran 0.8 miles across Adams County on June 7, 1994, touching down at 8:17 AM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 7, 1994
Touchdown
8:17 AM CDT (13:17 UTC)
Path length
0.8 miles (1.3 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Adams County
Touchdown point
40.600, -98.520
Record number
473

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado north of Hastings caused extensive damage to one house and one business. Another tornado just north of Juniata damaged two farm houses, destroyed several outbuildings, and overturned vehicles. Crop damage in Adams County was estimated at $10 million. Streets and underpasses were flooded in Hastings.

A tornado north of Hastings caused extensive damage to one house and one business. Another tornado just north of Juniata damaged two farm houses, destroyed several outbuildings, and overturned vehicles. Crop damage in Adams County was estimated at $10 million. Streets and underpasses were flooded in Hastings.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 13:13 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 13:35 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:32 UTC13:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
12:50 UTC13:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
13:13 UTC13:35 UTCTornado WarningGID

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 07:34 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), 12:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 185 km from the path. June 7, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 1994-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 8 joules per kilogram, CIN -711, lifted condensation level 1546 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 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 12:00Z on 1994-06-07The 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 41 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
8 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-711 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1546 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
248 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
6.7
0-3 km lapse rate
2.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

10.7 hours after it, 185 km from the path. June 8, 1994.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 1994-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2382 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 1317 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1994-06-08The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
2382 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3622 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1317 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1994 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 7, 1994

18 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 78:15 AM CDTF1Adams, NE2.050
June 72:47 PM MDTF0Pennington, SD7.010
June 73:57 PM MDTF0Pennington, SD1.0100
June 74:10 PM MDTF2Pennington, SD10.0800
June 74:30 PM MDTF0Fallon, MT0.110
June 74:35 PM MDTF0Ziebach, SD0.110
June 76:55 PM EDTF0Berkeley, SC0.120$500 to $5,000
June 77:30 PM CDTF1Newton, AR3.0300$500 to $5,000
June 76:50 PM MDTF0Haakon, SD10.010$500 to $5,000
June 77:55 PM CDTF2Cheyenne, KS10.0800$50,000 to $500,000
June 78:08 PM CDTF0Cheyenne, KS0.150
June 77:25 PM MDTF2Yuma, CO7.0800
June 78:32 PM CDTF2Cheyenne, KS7.0800$500,000 to $5 million
June 77:45 PM MDTF0Sherman, KS0.150
June 78:10 PM MDTF0Sherman, KS0.530
June 78:10 PM MDTF2Sherman, KS2.0500$50,000 to $500,000
June 79:40 PM CDTF1Lonoke, AR1.550$50,000 to $500,000
June 78:50 PM MDTF1Sherman, KS1.0100

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.