F2 tornado, Beatrice, Nebraska, May 8, 1996

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

May 8, 1996

Touchdown

8:44 PM CDT (01:44 UTC)

Path length

9.5 miles (15.3 km)

Path width

880 yards (805 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

15

Property damage

$12 million

County

Gage County

Touchdown point

40.280, -96.820

Lift-off point

40.300, -96.700

Record number

288

The beginning of the tornado started 4 1/2 miles west northwest of downtown Beatrice, just north of the Homestead National Monument. The storm damaged trees just north of state highway 4 when it struck several homes, primarily lifting the roofs off of them. The tornado was rated F1 at that point. Around 1/2 mile to the east, the tornado struck a subdivision. The damage was more severe, with collapsed outer walls and roofs off homes. The tornado damage was rated as a strong F2 in this area. The tornado, continuing to move in an east southeast direction, nearly paralleling highway 4, struck a church. Part of the roof was lost off the church. After striking the church, the tornado hit several more homes and barns before entering the heart of the city. The damage path width of the tornado was 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide, with damaging thunderstorms winds out to 11/2 mile. The main tornado path remained 1/4 to 1/2 mile wide north of U.S. highway 136, with much of the damage south of highway 136 due to thunderstorm downburst winds. The tornado strength weakened when entering the city, with an F-scale strength between F0-F1. Although much of the damage in the central city area was due to falling trees and large tree limbs, other damage noted was roofing torn off of several buildings and a collapsed 200 foot communication tower. After the storm exited the city, it regained strength. The tornado also began curving to the northeast. The storm maintained about F1 strength from about 1 mile east of downtown Beatrice to the storm's dissipation, approximately 3 miles northeast of the city. The strong F2 tornado's path was 9.5 miles long.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

Beatrice Municip (BIE), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:43 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.

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

17 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.