Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2004

F0 tornado, Pierce, Nebraska, April 18, 2004

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Pierce County on April 18, 2004, touching down at 5:25 PM CDT and reaching 40 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
April 18, 2004
Touchdown
5:25 PM CDT (22:25 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
40 yards (37 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Pierce County
Touchdown point
42.250, -97.600
Lift-off point
42.250, -97.600
Record number
23

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado was seen by a trained spotter in an open field northwest of Pierce. The tornado caused no apparent damage and was only briefly on the ground.

The emergency manager of Pierce county followed this tornado for nearly 6 miles. The tornado touched down from a different storm that produced the tornado a few minutes earlier to the west of Pierce. This tornado also remained in open fields and caused no apparent damage.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:26 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningOAX
22:57 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningOAX

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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

10.4 hours before the tornado, 145 km from the path. April 18, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2004-04-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 256 joules per kilogram, CIN -464, lifted condensation level 995 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, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2004-04-18The 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 365 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
256 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-464 J/kg
Surface CAPE
472 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
995 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
365 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
406 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

1.6 hours after it, 145 km from the path. April 19, 2004.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2004-04-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1099 joules per kilogram, CIN -135, lifted condensation level 1062 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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2004-04-19The 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 334 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
1099 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-135 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1499 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1062 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
334 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
385 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.2
Supercell composite
5.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Norfolk (OFK), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:00 UTC8158180° 25 kt32997
22:00 UTC7762170° 22 kt34997.3
23:00 UTC7563170° 27 kt32995.3
23:28 UTC66.257.2310° 16 kt36998.3
23:35 UTC62.657.2230° 15 kt28998
23:42 UTC60.855.4240° 9 kt22998.3
23:45 UTC5955.4240° 11 kt20999.3
23:56 UTC62.653.6 1000.3
00:00 UTC6253 5 kt171000.3
00:06 UTC60.853.6 1000.3
00:14 UTC60.853.6300° 10 kt151000.3

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

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 145 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:25 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
20:55 UTCHAIL 0.75NorfolkMadison, NE
20:58 UTCHAIL 2NorfolkMadison, NE
21:00 UTCHAIL 3NorfolkMadison, NE
21:05 UTCHAIL 2.7510 Nw StantonStanton, NE
21:10 UTCHAIL 2.7510 Nw StantonStanton, NESIGNIFICANT HAIL DAMAGE IN THE WOODLAND PARK VICINITY. NUMEROUS HOMES HAVE HOLES IN VINYL SIDING. SOME HOMES HAVE HOLES IN THE ROOF.
21:15 UTCHAIL 1.75HoskinsWayne, NE
21:50 UTCHAIL 0.757 Sw MadisonMadison, NE
22:20 UTCHAIL 0.755 Sw HartingtonCedar, NE
22:40 UTCTORNADO2 Ese PiercePierce, NESPOTTERS REPORTED A TORNADO ON THE GROUND EAST SOUTHEAST OF PIERCE. DEBRIS WAS REPORTED.
22:50 UTCHAIL 112 Nw NorfolkPierce, NE
23:02 UTCTORNADO5 W CarrollWayne, NE
23:09 UTCHAIL 12 Se PiercePierce, NE
23:15 UTCHAIL 0.753 E Battle CreekMadison, NE
23:35 UTCHAIL 0.884 W AllenDixon, NE
23:35 UTCHAIL 0.884 W AllenDixon, NE
23:52 UTCHAIL 13 Sw WayneWayne, NE
00:15 UTCHAIL 0.75MadisonMadison, NE
00:30 UTCHAIL 315 W PilgerStanton, NEWOODLAND PARK...EST. 100,000 DOLLARS DAMAGE TO HOMES DUE TO 2 TO 3 INCH HAIL.
00:45 UTCTSTM WND DMG10 Sw PilgerStanton, NEIN STANTON...DAMAGE TO FAIRGROUNDS...8 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN...ROOFS OFF BUILDINGS...LOST BLEACHERS

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 18, 2004

13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 181:43 PM EDTF0Cayuga, NY1.075$100,000
April 184:52 PM CDTF0Turner, SD0.150
April 184:58 PM CDTF1Lyon, IA4.0100$50,000
April 185:05 PM CDTF0Union, SD4.0100$10,000
April 185:15 PM CDTF0Sioux, IA0.150
April 185:20 PM CDTF1Nobles, MN0.5100$500,000
April 185:25 PM CDTF0Burnett, WI1.030
April 185:30 PM CDTF0Burnett, WI3.030
April 185:35 PM CDTF0Brown, MN0.115
April 185:40 PM CDTF0Pierce, NE6.050
April 186:03 PM CDTF0Redwood, MN1.550
April 186:29 PM CDTF1Redwood, MN7.050
April 188:02 PM CDTF0Woodbury, IA0.150

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.