Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2006

F1 tornado, Rushville, Nebraska, June 20, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Sheridan County on June 20, 2006, touching down at 5:09 PM MDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $150,000 of property damage.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 20, 2006
Touchdown
5:09 PM MDT (23:09 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$150,000
County
Sheridan County
Touchdown point
42.700, -102.450
Lift-off point
42.700, -102.450
Record number
652

What the Weather Service recorded

An anti-cyclonic left-moving supercell produced a brief, weak tornado that ripped off the roof of a home, destroyed the attached two car garage, moved outbuildings, and destroyed metal cattle shields. Debris from the destroyed home impacted a large metal machine shed and was scattered along a 1 mile path northeast of the farmstead. The home was a complete loss as the chimney fell into the house breaking floor joists.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:00 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:00 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLBF
22:15 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
22:52 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
23:18 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningLBF

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:08 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 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.

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 12:00Z

11.2 hours before the tornado, 156 km from the path. June 20, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2006-06-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 133 joules per kilogram, CIN -402, lifted condensation level 1021 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2006-06-20The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 51 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
133 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-402 J/kg
Surface CAPE
118 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1021 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
51 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 156 km from the path. June 21, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2006-06-21Temperature 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 -86354, lifted condensation level 2513 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, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2006-06-21The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
-86354 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2513 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 161 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:08 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
22:55 UTCHAIL 0.8812 S Hay SpringsSheridan, NE
23:09 UTCTORNADO1 S RushvilleSheridan, NEGORDON RADIO STATION RELAYED TORNADO DAMAGED HOUSE JUST SOUTH OF RUSHVILLE. ALSO OLD GRAIN ELEVATOR IN TOWN DESTROYED. NUMEROUS CARS DAMAGED FROM HAIL. POWER LINES DOWN. NO INJURIES REPORTED.
23:15 UTCTSTM WND GST 90RushvilleSheridan, NE14-15 INCH WIND COTTONWOOD TREE UPROOTED. ALSO FEW GOLFBALL SIZED HAIL. NO POWER IN TOWN. WIND VANE BLOWN OFF HOUSE.
23:15 UTCHAIL 1.25RushvilleSheridan, NE
23:15 UTCHAIL 1.75RushvilleSheridan, NE
23:15 UTCTORNADORushvilleSheridan, NEPUBLIC REPORT OF A TORNADO JUST NORTH OF RUSHVILLE.
23:40 UTCHAIL 13 Wnw GordonSheridan, NE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2006 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 20, 2006

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 202:28 PM EDTF0Palm Beach, FL0.250
June 205:00 PM MDTF0Logan, CO0.150

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.