F0 tornado, Farnam, Nebraska, June 29, 2000

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.

Rating

F0

Date

June 29, 2000

Touchdown

5:40 PM CDT (22:40 UTC)

Path length

0.8 miles (1.3 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Dawson County

Touchdown point

40.720, -100.200

Lift-off point

40.700, -100.200

Record number

397

A vicious severe thunderstorm roared south across a part of south-central Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening. The damage path extended from Gothenburg to Beaver City and Stamford. Wind driven hail and torrential rain shredded crops, broke windows and caused considerable property damage. Agricultural losses were in the tens of millions of dollars. This storm was likely the worst this generation had experienced, and "old-timers" had to remember back to 1937 for a comparable storm. The severe thunderstorm complex started early in the afternoon in the Nebraska Sand Hills and dropped south rapidly. Widespread reports of 70 mph winds were received from western Dawson county. A brief tornado set down 3 miles northeast of Farnam. The tornado lifted a garage over a house and "sucked" all of the items from the walls in the house. Golf ball size hail ripped apart crops and pasture in southwest Dawson county to the tune of 11 million dollars in loss.The storm progressed south across Gosper county with 70 mph winds and 1 inch hail. Power poles were broke and considerable soil erosion was reported in the county. As the storm reached Furnas county around 6:30 pm, it intensified some and the result was extensive property damage throughout the county. At the Southern Valley school south of Oxford, repairs of one million dollars were needed to fix the roof of the school and other structures near the school. Water damage was reported in many parts of the school. Windows were broken on buses and vehicles near the school grounds. Many homes in Furnas county sustained considerable hail damage to the north side. Windows were broken and siding damaged. Buildings on farms throughout the county were lost. Crop loss to the wheat, corn, and soybean crop was estimated at 15 million dollars.Just to the east, Harlan county did not escape the wrath of the storm. Dime size hail and 70 mph winds pummeled the Stamford and Oxford areas. Again, property damage was widespread to homes, businesses, and outbuildings. Crop loss in the western part of the county was nearly 7.5 million dollars. Producers will feel the effects of the storm well into the winter with very few corn stalks in the field for cattle to feed upon nor hay to cut for winter feed.

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 20:12 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.

Cozad (CZD), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 142 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:39 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 2000 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.