EF2 tornado, Brandon to Grant, Nebraska, March 28, 2007

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 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

EF2

Date

March 28, 2007

Touchdown

7:20 PM MDT (01:20 UTC)

Lifted

7:52 PM MDT (01:52 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

15.9 miles (25.6 km)

Path width

900 yards (823 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.2 million

County

Perkins County

Touchdown point

40.760, -101.769

Lift-off point

40.968, -101.877

Record number

0703281920-02

An intense upper level low pressure system approached Western Nebraska on March 28th. Supercells developed quickly along a dryline extending from western Cherry County southward through western Chase County. The supercells produced tornadoes, hail, and strong winds during the late afternoon and evening hours.

A supercell thunderstorm produced a tornado in Chase County that continued into Perkins County. The tornado broke some power poles along the path.

A large supercell thunderstorm originally spawned two tornadoes with the eastern tornado eventually taking over. The tornado touched down approximately 6 miles south-southwest of Grant and moved northeast for a few miles and then turned northwest to pass 3 miles west of Grant and continue northwest to near the Perkins and Keith County line approximately 12 miles north-northwest of Grant. The tornado encountered the first farm where it destroyed outbuildings and grain bins and damaged the roof of a metal storage building. Damage to the second farm included ripping off half the roof on the home. At the third farmstead, the tornado destroyed grain bins and a barn and ripped a hole in the roof of the home. The tornado also uprooted and snapped off numerous trees, broke off power poles, and overturned center pivot irrigation systems.

A large supercell thunderstorm originally spawned two tornadoes with the eastern tornado eventually taking over. This western tornado moved northeast and broke off power poles before dissipating. The eastern tornado went on to produce extensive damage through Perkins County.

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

27 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:53 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:42 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 North Platte radar (KLNX), 160 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:21 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 2007 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

65 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 66 of them

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.