F1 tornado, Ogallala, Nebraska, October 5, 1994

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.

Rating

F1

Date

October 5, 1994

Touchdown

10:20 PM MDT (04:20 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000 to $500,000

County

Keith County

Touchdown point

41.130, -101.720

Record number

996

A tornado moved along a narrowrow path from southwest to northeast for about nine city blocks on the west edge of Ogallala. The tornado touched down by the Union Pacific tracks south of West United States Highway 30; uprooting a tree there. The tornado moved across United States Highway 30 and felled a tree on a home, causing extensive damage to the roof. The tornado then ripped a 24 foot by 96 foot roof from a storage building. The roof was scattered across the Keith County fairgrounds and into an electrical feeder station, causing power outages to 25 homes. Tops were taken out of trees along the entire path and tree limbs ripped electrical services off numerous homes. Several trees were also uprooted along the path. Fifty feet of edging was blown off the elementary school's roof and three windows were broken. A tree fell on the roof of a home and a vehicle near the home. Hayes County 15NE Hayes Center,05,2250CST,,,0,0,?,?,Thunderstorm Winds (G60) Thunderstorm winds moved a double-wide trailer off of its foundation. Two storage sheds were destroyed and a solar panel from the roof of the trailer. Crops were destroyed in an adjacent cornfield.

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

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:22 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 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.

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

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.