F0 tornado, Ravenna, Nebraska, September 15, 2006

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

September 15, 2006

Touchdown

5:30 PM CDT (22:30 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

County

Buffalo County

Touchdown point

40.880, -98.930

Lift-off point

40.880, -98.930

Record number

865

Thunderstorms developed in the late afternoon southwest of Holdrege and moved east across the region. These thunderstorms brought hail up to the size of baseballs and a tornado to parts of south-central Nebraska. Hailstones up to 2 inches in diameter damaged homes and trees in the Holdrege area and gusty winds brought down power lines across northern Phelps county. The storms increased in intensity as they moved toward the tri-cites. One tornado briefly sat down in eastern Buffalo county where it destroyed a barn south of Ravenna. Baseball sized hail was reported in the central and northern portions of Grand Island where cars, homes and trees were damaged. Two-inch diameter hail was reported across northern Adams county and gusty winds also caused power outages in the Trumbull and Hanson areas. The storms continued to rumble to the east during the evening hours and dropped hail up to the size of golf balls and wind gusts around 70 mph. Large tree limbs were downed in Shelby and Fullerton. The severe weather delayed several area football games.

A tornado briefly touched ground and destroyed an old barn south of Ravenna

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:19 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:08 UTC and running to 01:25 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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.

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 75 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:31 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 2006 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.