F1 tornado, Inavale, Nebraska, June 10, 2004

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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 10, 2004

Touchdown

9:49 PM CDT (02:49 UTC)

Path length

12.0 miles (19.3 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Webster County

Touchdown point

40.020, -98.650

Lift-off point

40.180, -98.480

Record number

1380

A night of severe weather pounded sections of south-central Nebraska with two tornadoes and several reports of hail and high winds. The first tornado occurred in Webster county. The path stretched from south of Inavale to northeast of Red Cloud near Cowles. Along its path, a couple of pivots were overturned, several out buildings ripped apart and windows blown out of a home northwest of Red Cloud. The tornado crossed U.S. Highway 136 west of Red Cloud and U.S. Highway 281 north of town. Property damage along the tornado's 12 mile path was estimated at one-half million dollars.Elsewhere in south-central Nebraska, a brief tornado tore a 40 foot covering from a house north of Boelus. The homeowners said the twister left a visible trail of damage through a stand of cottonwood trees to the northeast of their property. High winds caused minor damage in Kearney. Large hail was reported in Furnas county, but that was offset by much needed rain in the area.

A tornado cut across Webster County shortly after sunset. The tornado caused damage at about half-dozen locations during its journey.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 02:38 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 03:45 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, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:09 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:49 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.

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

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

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

19 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.