F0 tornado, Wood River, Nebraska, May 11, 2005

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.

Rating

F0

Date

May 11, 2005

Touchdown

10:05 PM CDT (03:05 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$120,000

County

Hall County

Touchdown point

40.820, -98.600

Lift-off point

40.820, -98.600

Record number

110

Though well predicted, the severe weather and flooding on the night of May 11 was even worse than imagined. Thunderstorms ravaged a large part of south central Nebraska with hail, high winds, a tornado and catastrophic flooding.During evening and early morning hours, 4 to 12 inches of fell from Dawson County east to York County. At Kenesaw and Wood River, over 11 inches of rain was measured. The city of Grand Island set a rainfall record for a single event with 7.21 inches of rain. Statically, this event was a 100 year rain and flood event for the area. In Wood River, 12 people were evacuated due to rising water. It was estimated every structure in Wood River sustained some sort of storm damage and wave after wave of severe thunderstorms pounded the town. Twelve homes sustained severe damage. The Wood River crested at 9 feet in town and flooding most streets. Thirty-six homes were evacuated in the city of Grand Island as flooding was rampant over the west and north part of the city. The city's sewer system handled about 75 million gallons of water, or about 6 times the normal amount during the storm. Many parts of the business and residential districts sustained flood damage as the Prairie, Silver and Moores Creeks flooded. The Wood River near Alda, which had been dry for three years, tied a record with a crest of 12.2 feet early on the 12th. Elsewhere, three miles of roads were washed out in Kearney County and 15 miles of roads were damaged in Merrick County. Ten bridges were damaged in Merrick County as well. In York County, emergency rescues, one by helicopter and one by air boat, were made to retrieve stranded people trapped by flood waters southeast of Waco and near McCool Junction. Water was over Highway 81 north of Fairmont at the height of the event. In Fillmore and York counties, 5 to 8 inches of rain fell. Further west, a section of Highway 40 was washed out near Miller. Flood damage was in the tens of millions of dollars, with 12 to 15 million dollars in damage in Hall County alone. As flooding rains soaked the region, large hail, high winds and one tornado pounded the area. Hastings was particularly hard hit as baseball size hail and high winds belted the city for about 20 minutes. Literally, thousands of vehicles and homes sustained damage, especially on the east side of town, including downtown. Damage was estimated at 40 million, and that may be conservative and insurance agencies processed claims. State Farm Insurance was expecting to process 3,000 claims alone. Thirty-three people left their homes for shelter provided by the city. In Wood River, a tornado clipped the south side of town. In Merrick County, two Union Pacific trains derailed due to high winds and a tower for KMMJ radio was blown down north of town. A communications tower was also destroyed in Buffalo County by high winds. There were widespread, though brief, power outages in the area. At one point, about 60 percent of the city of Lexington was without power. Twelve center pivot irrigation systems were damaged in Fillmore County. High winds destroyed a barn southeast of Gothenburg and grain binds south of Darr in Dawson County. Officials estimate, 2800 homes and businesses had damaged in Grand Island. Both Hall and Adams Counties were declared Federal Disasters Areas.

A brief tornado hit a house on the south side of Wood River.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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 01:08 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.

Hastings (HSI), 28 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), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:04 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2005 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.