EF1 tornado, Callaway to Anselmo, Nebraska, May 5, 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 mphthis tornado

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

3. EF2111 to 135 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. 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

EF1

Date

May 5, 2007

Touchdown

12:23 PM CDT (17:23 UTC)

Lifted

12:55 PM CDT (17:55 UTC)

On the ground

32 minutes

Path length

20.6 miles (33.1 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Custer County

Touchdown point

41.121, -100.168

Lift-off point

41.430, -100.100

Record number

0705051123-01

A cyclic supercell produced three different tornadoes during the early afternoon hours. One of the tornadoes traveled through three counties.

The tornado touched down 17 miles southwest of Callaway and tracked northward for approximately 21 miles near Highways 47 and 40 in western Custer County before lifting approximately 5 miles east of Arnold. The tornado destroyed several grain bins, uprooted trees, destroyed a garage and small outbuildings, overturned center pivot irrigation systems, snapped many power poles, broke windows, destroyed a barn, and mangled farm machinery, vehicles, and a horse trailer.

The tornado touched down 8 miles northeast of Arnold and traveled northward destroying a barn and windmills, breaking fences, snapping trees, and breaking windows in an old sod home. The average path width of the tornado was 220 yards. After traveling for approximately 17 miles in Custer County, the tornado crossed into Blaine County approximately 12 miles northwest of Anselmo and then into Brown County before finally lifting. The total track length of the tornado was 55 miles.

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

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 tornado watch, issued at 14:52 UTC and running to 02:34 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 High Risk, with a 0.30 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 16:28 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.

Broken Bow Municipal (BBW), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:23 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

96 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 97 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.