Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2006

F1 tornado, Arnold, Nebraska, June 7, 2006

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Custer County on June 7, 2006, touching down at 7:38 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $70,000 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 7, 2006
Touchdown
7:38 PM CDT (00:38 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$70,000
County
Custer County
Touchdown point
41.450, -100.220
Lift-off point
41.450, -100.220
Record number
607

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado from a supercell thunderstorm touched down briefly overturning two center pivot irrigation systems and destroying alfalfa and wheat fields.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:13 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
00:53 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningLBF
01:29 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 19:59 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

0.6 hours before the tornado, 48 km from the path. June 8, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2006-06-08Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1816 joules per kilogram, CIN -15, lifted condensation level 2766 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2006-06-08The 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 53 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
1816 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-15 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2100 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2766 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
183 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
8.5
0-3 km lapse rate
9.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

11.4 hours after it, 48 km from the path. June 8, 2006.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2006-06-08Temperature 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 -73656, lifted condensation level 2005 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2006-06-08The 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 437 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-73656 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2005 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
437 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
639 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Broken Bow Municipal (BBW), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:53 UTC9149150° 16 kt271015.2
23:53 UTC8846110° 18 kt241015.9
00:27 UTC80.648.280° 25 kt341016.9VCTS
00:53 UTC774780° 27 kt441017.6TS
01:53 UTC774770° 20 kt301020VCTS
02:32 UTC69.859110° 27 kt351018.3-TSRA

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

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:40 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
23:16 UTCHAIL 16 Nnw HalseyThomas, NE
23:35 UTCHAIL 1HalseyBlaine, NE2 TO 4 INCH DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES BLOWN DOWN
00:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 6016 Ne StapletonLogan, NEOUTBUILDING TURNED OVER
00:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 6016 Ne StapletonLogan, NE
00:10 UTCTSTM WND GST 60DunningBlaine, NE
00:10 UTCHAIL 0.8816 Ne StapletonLogan, NE
00:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 603 Se DunningBlaine, NE
00:27 UTCTSTM WND GST 6012 Nw AnselmoCuster, NE
00:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 60StapletonLogan, NEDEBRIS SEEN BLOWING OFF ROOFS
00:55 UTCTSTM WND GST 708 Wnw ArnoldLogan, NE
00:55 UTCHAIL 18 Wnw ArnoldLogan, NE
01:12 UTCTSTM WND GST 609 Wsw ArnoldLincoln, NEPEA SIZED HAIL
01:33 UTCTSTM WND GST 694 E North PlatteLincoln, NE
01:40 UTCTSTM WND GST 7012 W CallawayCuster, NE
01:40 UTCHAIL 0.8812 W CallawayCuster, NE
01:51 UTCTSTM WND GST 675 Nnw GothenburgDawson, NE67 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED BY TRAINED STORM SPOTTER
02:10 UTCHAIL 18 N North PlatteLincoln, NE
02:20 UTCTSTM WND GST 615 Nnw GothenburgDawson, NE61 MPH WIND GUST MEASURED BY TRAINED STORM SPOTTER
02:20 UTCHAIL 0.755 Nnw GothenburgDawson, NE
02:28 UTCHAIL 0.53 W GothenburgDawson, NE50 MPH WIND GUST ALSO REPORTED

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 7, 2006

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 76:50 PM EDTF1Jackson, IN8.13004$400,000

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.