Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2000

F1 tornado, Eustis, Nebraska, October 31, 2000

This F1 tornado ran 9.0 miles across Frontier County on October 31, 2000, touching down at 5:38 PM CST and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
October 31, 2000
Touchdown
5:38 PM CST (23:38 UTC)
Path length
9.0 miles (14.5 km)
Path width
150 yards (137 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
County
Frontier County
Touchdown point
40.520, -100.030
Lift-off point
40.650, -100.030
Record number
13

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado touched down 10 miles south southwest of Eustis damaging some trees. The tornado moved north northeast and was intermittently on the ground to 1 mile south of Eustis. Six miles south southwest of Eustis a farm received extensive damage with a barn destroyed and several outbuildings damaged along with damage to fences, machinery and corrals. This is the same farm that was struck two days earlier. Five miles south southwest of Eustis a farm was narrowly missed with damage to irrigation pipes and trees. The tornado then struck a farm 1 mile south of Eustis damaging several outbuildings.

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

The warnings

19 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:19 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:07 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
23:19 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningLBF

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 19:53 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 77 km from the path. October 31, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2000-10-31Temperature 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 -67870, lifted condensation level 1406 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2000-10-31The 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 81 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 53 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
-67870 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1406 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
53 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
81 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
2.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 77 km from the path. November 1, 2000.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2000-11-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 844 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 945 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2000-11-01The 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 209 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 69 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
844 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
978 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
945 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
69 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
209 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
297 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.9
Supercell composite
4.6
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 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 31, 2000

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 312:15 PM MSTF2Wallace, KS12.0240
October 313:16 PM CSTF0Thomas, KS0.350
October 313:53 PM CSTF0Thomas, KS7.570
October 312:54 PM MSTF1Sherman, KS0.5100
October 313:01 PM MSTF0Sherman, KS0.5100
October 314:38 PM CSTF1Decatur, KS4.0120
October 314:48 PM CSTF0Red Willow, NE3.0100
October 315:00 PM CSTF1Hayes, NE9.0100$160,000
October 315:10 PM CSTF0Red Willow, NE3.070
October 314:49 PM MSTF0Sherman, KS0.350
October 316:12 PM CSTF2Dawson, NE23.0220$120,000
October 316:15 PM CSTF0Rawlins, KS0.770
October 317:00 PM CSTF0Nemaha, NE2.040$30,000
October 317:00 PM CSTF2Custer, NE12.0250$1.0 million
October 317:35 PM CSTF1Loup, NE12.0250$750,000
October 318:08 PM CSTF1Mills, IA2.570$40,000

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.