Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2000

F0 tornado, Clarks to Fullerton, Nebraska, October 29, 2000

From Clarks to Fullerton, this F0 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Merrick and Nance counties on October 29, 2000, touching down at 4:07 PM CST and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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
October 29, 2000
Touchdown
4:07 PM CST (22:07 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
Counties
Merrick and Nance counties
Touchdown point
41.220, -97.870
Lift-off point
41.320, -97.920
Record number
1067

What the Weather Service recorded

In a rather unprecedented manner, a strong upper level low pressure system rotating over south-central Nebraska, produced a number of late season tornadoes and funnel clouds across the area.The most significant tornado occurred northeast of Fullerton, and was on the ground for 9 miles. This tornado, rated at F1, damaged 3 farmsteads in its path. One farmstead alone suffered damaged grain bins, farm equipment and vehicles. The occupants of the home were able to get into the tornado shelter just before the tornado hit.Just prior to that tornado, off-duty National Weather Service employees observed another tornado from the same parent thunderstorm. this tornado moved from north of Clarks in Merrick county to southeast of Fullerton in Nance county, and overturned an irrigation pivot and damaged trees. Other tornadoes were sighted southwest of Aurora and near Inland. Numerous other funnel clouds were observed along with some large hail.

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

The warnings

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:27 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID

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 20:16 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

10.1 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. October 29, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2000-10-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -63218, lifted condensation level 656 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2000-10-29The 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 12 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-63218 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
656 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
12 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
38 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

1.9 hours after it, 128 km from the path. October 30, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2000-10-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 496 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 669 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2000-10-30The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 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
496 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
57 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
669 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2000 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of October 29, 2000

9 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 291:25 PM CSTF0Clay, NE1.010
October 291:45 PM CSTF0Hamilton, NE0.510
October 294:30 PM CSTF1Nance, NE9.0100$120,000
October 294:57 PM CSTF0Butler, NE3.050$10,000
October 295:02 PM CSTF0Seward, NE0.130
October 295:07 PM CSTF0Otoe, NE2.550$10,000
October 295:14 PM CSTF0Otoe, NE1.040$1,000
October 295:16 PM CSTF0Otoe, NE2.050$10,000
October 296:45 PM CSTF1Frontier, NE1.050$100,000

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.