Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1996

F0 tornado, Stanton, Nebraska, June 20, 1996

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Stanton County on June 20, 1996, touching down at 6:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 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 20, 1996
Touchdown
6:30 PM CDT (23:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Stanton County
Touchdown point
41.800, -97.030
Lift-off point
41.800, -97.030
Record number
437

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado did damage to outbuildings and a barn 15 miles southeast of Stanton. Spotters were able to see the funnel for several minutes.

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

The warnings

3 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:27 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
12:00 UTC12:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
22:51 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
23:27 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:01 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:58 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, 77 km from the path. June 20, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1996-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2885 joules per kilogram, CIN -108, lifted condensation level 717 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 1996-06-20The 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 145 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 29 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
2885 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-108 J/kg
Surface CAPE
716 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
717 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
145 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
147 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
10.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 77 km from the path. June 21, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1996-06-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2363 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 1424 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 1996-06-21The 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 112 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 52 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
2363 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1167 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1424 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
112 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
276 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
2.1
Supercell composite
19.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Norfolk (OFK), 39 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:00 UTC746940° 11 kt1009.1
23:00 UTC737050° 7 kt1007.8FG
00:00 UTC726980° 13 kt1007.5-RA FG
01:00 UTC727080° 10 kt1006.4-RA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

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 June 20, 1996

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 206:05 PM CDTF1Cuming, NE0.330$40,000
June 206:40 PM CDTF0Colfax, NE0.120$20,000
June 207:54 PM CDTF0Jackson, TX0.375$10,000
June 208:00 PM CDTF1Dodge, NE0.560$300,000
June 209:14 PM CDTF0Colfax, NE0.110
June 209:30 PM CDTF1Washington, NE0.3100$300,000
June 209:45 PM CDTF1Dodge, NE3.030$50,000
June 2010:40 PM CDTF0Saunders, NE0.110
June 2011:10 PM CDTF1Butler, NE0.330$150,000
June 2011:30 PM CDTF0Butler, NE0.120$10,000

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.