F2 tornado, Broken Bow to Sargent, Nebraska, October 31, 2000

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

October 31, 2000

Touchdown

7:00 PM CST (01:00 UTC)

Path length

12.0 miles (19.3 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.0 million

County

Custer County

Touchdown point

41.330, -99.550

Lift-off point

41.470, -99.550

Record number

642

The tornado touched down 7 miles southeast of Broken Bow and traveled 12 miles north northeast across farm and rangeland. Initial damage occurred at touchdown with a modular home destroyed. Then over the next 2 miles 3 farmsteads were struck. The first suffered heavy damage to all buildings including the house. At the second farmstead a modular home and several buildings were completely destroyed. The third farmstead suffered extensive damage to the outbuildings and minor damage to the house. The tornado then moved across highway 2 and destroyed several farm building 4 miles east of Broken Bow. Then as the tornado moved across highway 70 another farmstead was struck with several outbuildings destroyed and the house damaged. The tornado remained on the the ground and destroyed a barn 5 miles northeast of Broken Bow, then did extensive damage to a farmstead 7 miles northeast of Broken Bow where several outbuildings were destroyed or damaged and damaged the house. Tree damage was extensive along the entire path and several center pivot irrigation systems were destroyed. The tornado lifted 7 miles northeast of Broken Bow.

The tornado touched down 2 miles west of Sargent with damage to a farm building and center pivot irrigation system. The tornado moved north northeast with several power poles broken off and minor damage produced at a farm 2 miles northwest of Sargent. The tornado then moved across open country until destroying a communication tower and several power poles 5 miles north of Sargent. A farm building was then damaged 6 miles north of Sargent before the tornado moved into southeast Loup county.

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

35 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:25 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

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 01:14 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.

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

16 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.