Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2002

F0 tornado, Indianola to Wilsonville, Nebraska, May 26, 2002

From Indianola to Wilsonville, this F0 tornado ran 6.0 miles across Red Willow and Furnas counties on May 26, 2002, touching down at 7:30 PM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
May 26, 2002
Touchdown
7:30 PM CDT (00:30 UTC)
Path length
6.0 miles (9.7 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Counties
Red Willow and Furnas counties
Touchdown point
40.200, -100.230
Lift-off point
40.120, -100.170
Record number
606

What the Weather Service recorded

Scattered thunderstorms erupted across south-central Nebraska. The thunderstorms started out north of Grand Island and spread south to the Nebraska/Kansas border. Brief tornados occurred west of Saint Paul, east of Naponee and west of Wilsonville. These were very short lived and caused no damage. The tornado near Wilsonville was reported by a university chase team. Very strong winds developed northwest of Grand Island and roared at nearly 80 mph through the village of Cairo. Windows were blown out of several cars and roofs were blown off a couple of businesses. Hail up to 4 inches in diameter smashed through Franklin and caused extensive roof and siding damage.

Weak tornado developed 6 miles north of Indianola in northeast Red Willow County. The tornado remained over open fields as it traversed 4.5 miles in 11 minutes for an average forward speed of 25 mph. The tornado dissipated approximately 3 miles northeast of Indianola. No known injuries or damage.

Weak tornado developed 5 miles SE of Bartley at 17:30 and tracked southeast across open fields, reaching the Furnas County line 9 miles SE of Bartley at 17:40. No known injuries or damage.

This tornado exited Red Willow County and entered Furnas county northwest of Wilsonville. The tornado was observed by a chase team and crossed open county.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:03 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:03 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningGLD

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 20:21 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

0.5 hours before the tornado, 113 km from the path. May 27, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2002-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1192 joules per kilogram, CIN -125, lifted condensation level 1891 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2002-05-27The 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 112 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
1192 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-125 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3244 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1891 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
112 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.5 hours after it, 113 km from the path. May 27, 2002.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2002-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 44 joules per kilogram, CIN -490, lifted condensation level 1682 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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 2002-05-27The 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 9 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
44 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-490 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1682 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
9 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
63 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mccook (MCK), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:53 UTC8656180° 9 kt1008.5
23:53 UTC8649180° 7 kt1007.5
00:46 UTC84.253.680° 10 kt161008.1
00:53 UTC845380° 9 kt161008.5
01:53 UTC735930° 5 kt1007.5

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

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:31 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 26, 2002

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 263:55 PM CDTF0Trempealeau, WI0.120
May 266:40 PM CDTF0Frontier, NE0.520
May 266:58 PM CDTF0Howard, NE0.525
May 267:05 PM CDTF0Frontier, NE0.520
May 267:06 PM CDTF0Red Willow, NE4.5100
May 267:15 PM CDTF0Franklin, NE1.050
May 267:20 PM CDTF0Pecos, TX0.150
May 267:53 PM CDTF0Barton, KS1.0110
May 267:55 PM CDTF0Barton, KS0.5110
May 267:59 PM CDTF0Russell, KS1.0110
May 269:17 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.220
May 2610:48 PM CDTF0Nolan, TX0.330

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.