Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1996

F0 tornado, Monroe, Nebraska, July 16, 1996

This F0 tornado ran 2.0 miles across Platte County on July 16, 1996, touching down at 6:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $4,000 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
July 16, 1996
Touchdown
6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)
Path length
2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$4,000
County
Platte County
Touchdown point
41.470, -97.650
Lift-off point
41.480, -97.620
Record number
599

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado was reported by spotters. A large grain bin was blown over and power lines were downed.

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

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:08 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:41 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
23:08 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningOAX
23:36 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningOAX
23:44 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:30 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
00:36 UTC02:45 UTCFlash Flood WarningOAX

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 06:08 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

11.5 hours before the tornado, 107 km from the path. July 16, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1996-07-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 60 joules per kilogram, CIN -172, lifted condensation level 1676 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 1996-07-16The 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 41 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
60 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-172 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1676 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
41 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
254 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 107 km from the path. July 17, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1996-07-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1921 joules per kilogram, CIN -74, lifted condensation level 979 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 00:00Z on 1996-07-17The 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 101 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1921 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-74 J/kg
Surface CAPE
149 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
979 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 16, 1996

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 166:17 PM CDTF0Nance, NE0.220
July 1611:00 PM CDTF0Dakota, NE3.0100$50,000
July 1612:58 AM CDTF0Carroll, IA0.225

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.