F1 tornado, Deshler to Byron, Nebraska, May 24, 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

May 24, 2004

Touchdown

4:06 PM CDT (21:06 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

450 yards (411 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Thayer County

Touchdown point

40.100, -97.780

Lift-off point

40.050, -97.770

Record number

1201

As a cold front sliced across south-central Nebraska, a supercell thunderstorm developed along the front and moved southeast across Nuckolls and Thayer counties. The supercell became a prolific tornado producing storm with almost a dozen tornadoes having been reported. With rainfall from the thunderstorm limited to a small area, the tornadoes were visible throughout the region by spotters, storm chasers and the public. At one point, three tornadoes were on the ground at one time in southwest Thayer county, one of which severely damaged two farmsteads.

A tornado damaged a shed and several trees on it two mile path in southwest Thayer county.

A tornado damaged two farmsteads north of Byron. At one point, the tornado was up to one-quarter mile wide with a very clear path across a cornfield. At the first farm, the roof was torn from the house along with significant damage to the garage. It was a total loss. A machine shed was also ripped apart. At a second farm, damage as confined to metal buildings, grain bins and farm machinery. At one point, this was the largest of three tornadoes on the ground on the ground at one time.

One final, brief tornado set down in south-central Nebraska east of Byron. The supercell thunderstorm then moved into Kansas.

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

50 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:16 UTC, 50 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 21:44 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.

Hebron (HJH), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:05 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

52 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.