Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2001

F0 tornado, Red Cloud Arpt, Nebraska, April 11, 2001

This F0 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Webster County on April 11, 2001, touching down at 1:12 AM CDT and reaching 25 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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
April 11, 2001
Touchdown
1:12 AM CDT (06:12 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Webster County
Touchdown point
40.070, -98.520
Lift-off point
40.120, -98.480
Record number
651

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms in the late evening developed in central Nebraska. These storms brought hail and gusty winds to the Loup River valley. No damage was reported. Later in the night, thunderstorms moved northeast from northern Kansas into south-central Nebraska. These storms did produce 3 tornadoes. Two were only on the ground for a few moments, but the twister in Nuckolls county was on the ground for 12 miles. Most damage was to outbuildings, irrigation piping, trees and power poles. A house on the east side of Hebron was damaged. A man in the house sustained a few cuts from broken glass as he left the damaged home.

Brief tornado that damaged some irrigation pipe, outbuilding and trees.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:11 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:51 UTC06:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
06:11 UTC07:00 UTCTornado 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 05:29 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), 00:00Z

6.2 hours before the tornado, 211 km from the path. April 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2001-04-11Temperature 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 -73513, lifted condensation level 904 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 00:00Z on 2001-04-11The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
-73513 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
904 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

5.8 hours after it, 211 km from the path. April 11, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2001-04-11Temperature 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 -10557, lifted condensation level 547 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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 2001-04-11The 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 445 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 84 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
-10557 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
547 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
84 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
445 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
564 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2001 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 11, 2001

49 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 111:14 AM CDTF1Jewell, KS17.575$130,000
April 111:30 AM CDTF1Republic, KS10.075$20,000
April 111:39 AM CDTF1Nuckolls, NE12.0300$40,000
April 111:49 AM CDTF1Thayer, NE1.0751$30,000
April 111:55 AM CDTF0Washington, KS6.075$10,000
April 112:05 AM CDTF1Washington, KS4.0100$10,000
April 112:30 AM CDTF1Gage, NE1.040$150,000
April 112:40 AM CDTF2Gage, NE2.0502$400,000
April 112:47 AM CDTF1Cooke, TX5.550$10,000
April 113:00 AM CDTF1Pottawatomie, OK5.050$40,000
April 113:34 AM CDTF1Cooke, TX7.8100$10,000
April 113:55 AM CDTF1Cooke, TX to OK19.0150$20,000
April 114:40 AM CDTF2Pontotoc, OK14.5400$520,000
April 114:45 AM CDTF2Johnston, OK19.05004$2.5 million
April 114:47 AM CDTF0Bryan, OK0.325$10,000
April 115:25 AM CDTF2Coal, OK13.020011$80,000
April 117:26 AM CDTF1Haskell, OK3.0400$100,000
April 1110:27 AM CDTF0Cedar, MO0.110
April 1111:30 AM CDTF3Worth, MO to IA76.5500$1.9 million
April 1112:15 PM CDTF0Sarpy, NE0.130$10,000
April 1112:37 PM CDTF0Mills, IA2.040$20,000
April 1112:45 PM CDTF1Mills, IA2.040$50,000
April 1112:55 PM CDTF1Pottawattamie, IA0.540$110,000
April 1112:55 PM CDTF0Pottawattamie, IA2.030
April 111:00 PM CDTF0Pottawattamie, IA0.230
April 111:30 PM CDTF0Shelby, IA0.230$10,000
April 111:37 PM CDTF0Polk, IA0.535
April 112:25 PM CDTF1Guthrie, IA2.075$60,000
April 112:45 PM CDTF0Greene, IA0.525
April 113:04 PM CDTF0Boone, IA0.725$10,000
April 113:05 PM CDTF0Greene, IA1.035$10,000
April 113:06 PM CDTF1Boone, IA3.0140$150,000
April 113:10 PM CDTF1Boone, IA4.040$70,000
April 113:37 PM CDTF0Webster, IA0.225$30,000
April 113:38 PM CDTF1Hamilton, IA2.250$70,000
April 113:40 PM CDTF1Jasper, IA17.545$10,000
April 114:00 PM CDTF2Wapello, IA8.410023$400,000
April 114:25 PM CDTF0Keokuk, IA3.050$90,000
April 114:40 PM CDTF0Iowa, IA0.110
April 114:50 PM CDTF0Washington, IA0.110
April 115:00 PM CDTF0Johnson, IA2.050$30,000
April 115:02 PM CDTF0Johnson, IA0.110
April 115:07 PM CDTF1Black Hawk, IA10.050$120,000
April 115:20 PM CDTF0Johnson, IA0.110
April 115:20 PM CDTF0Linn, IA0.110
April 115:20 PM CDTF0Benton, IA0.110$20,000
April 115:50 PM CDTF1Fayette, IA2.0751$40,000
April 117:40 PM EDTF0Muskegon, MI0.120
April 117:42 PM EDTF0Ottawa, MI0.120

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.