Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2005

F0 tornado, Ord, Nebraska, September 12, 2005

This F0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Valley County on September 12, 2005, touching down at 7:06 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
September 12, 2005
Touchdown
7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Valley County
Touchdown point
41.670, -98.930
Lift-off point
41.670, -98.930
Record number
1105

What the Weather Service recorded

Apart from an isolated super cell in Valley County, another intense thunderstorm produce one to two inch diameter hail in Adams County. Later in the evening, quarter size hail was noted in Fairmont with another severe thunderstorm.

A brief tornado was spotted by a trained spotter in open country northwest of Ord.

Another brief tornado was reported by a storm chaser from an isolated super cell storm in northern Valley county. No damage was noted, as the tornado occurred across open county and for a very short time.

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

The warnings

8 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:58 UTC, 8 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:34 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
23:58 UTC01:00 UTCTornado WarningGID

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:14 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

0.1 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. September 13, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2005-09-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1289 joules per kilogram, CIN -120, lifted condensation level 1827 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 2005-09-13The 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 -29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 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
1289 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-120 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2038 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1827 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
8.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.9 hours after it, 152 km from the path. September 13, 2005.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2005-09-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -82901, lifted condensation level 1728 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2005-09-13The 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 -194 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-82901 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1728 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-194 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 140 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:07 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
23:50 UTCHAIL 1.753 Nw OrdValley, NEWINDS HAD SLOWED TO 40 MPH AS WELL
23:57 UTCTORNADO4 N OrdValley, NEBRIEF TOUCHDOWN IN OPEN COUNTY REPORTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.
00:10 UTCHAIL 0.8816 Ese BurwellValley, NELASTED ABOUT 10 MINUTES.
00:10 UTCHAIL 0.887 Wsw EricsonGarfield, NELASTED ABOUT 10 MINUTES.
00:25 UTCHAIL 1.518 E BurwellGarfield, NEHALF DOLLAR SIZED HAIL WITH SOME WALNUT SIZED KNOCKING LEAVES OFF TREES.

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of September 12, 2005

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 126:57 PM CDTF0Valley, NE0.215
September 127:40 PM CDTF1Yellow Medicine, MN1.020
September 127:43 PM CDTF1Chippewa, MN1.020
September 1210:15 PM CDTF1Hennepin, MN3.0301

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.