Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2008

EF0 tornado, (Czd)Cozad Muni Arpt to Darr, Nebraska, June 23, 2008

From (Czd)Cozad Muni Arpt to Darr, this EF0 tornado ran 5.1 miles across Dawson County on June 23, 2008, touching down at 12:52 AM CDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 23, 2008
Touchdown
12:52 AM CDT (05:52 UTC)
Lifted
12:58 AM CDT (05:58 UTC)
On the ground
6 minutes
Path length
5.1 miles (8.1 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Dawson County
Touchdown point
40.780, -100.030
Lift-off point
40.804, -99.939
Record number
0806232352-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An upper level disturbance interacting with surface boundaries left from previous convection brought another round of thunderstorms to south central Nebraska. A southerly low level jet helped to sustain thunderstorms well into the overnight hours. Some thunderstorms were severe, with penny to quarter size hail reported. A brief and weak tornado occurred near Cozad. Locally heavy rain and flash flooding was also reported, with as much as 2 to 6 inches falling in portions of Adams, Hall, and Buffalo Counties.

A very weak tornado spun up quickly and moved south of Cozad for about 5 miles. Near the start of the damage path, a farmstead lost several large tree limbs. When the tornado crossed Highway 21, it hit another farmstead. Here it damaged a few of the outbuildings, including removing the roof off of a shed. It also damaged a grain bin. Other tree damage was noted near the end of the tornado's path by the Platte River.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
05:02 UTC06:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
05:56 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
06:01 UTC07:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
06:22 UTC12:15 UTCFlash Flood WarningGID
06:58 UTC07:34 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
07:13 UTC08:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 00:41 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

5.9 hours before the tornado, 64 km from the path. June 24, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2008-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1839 joules per kilogram, CIN -110, lifted condensation level 1349 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-06-24The 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 38 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1839 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-110 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3427 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1349 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
53 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
9.9
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

6.1 hours after it, 64 km from the path. June 24, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2008-06-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 86 joules per kilogram, CIN -182, lifted condensation level 1579 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 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 2008-06-24The 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 40 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 15 knots.1939Sfc1 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
86 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-182 J/kg
Surface CAPE
28 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1579 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
40 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
95 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
04:30 UTCHAIL 0.88MaywoodFrontier, NE
05:58 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 S CozadDawson, NECONSIDERABLE OUTBUILDING AND GRAIN BIN DAMAGE ON FARMSTEAD ALONG HIGHWAY 21...INCLUDING BARN ROOF BLOWN OFF. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR DATA.
05:58 UTCTORNADO6 Ssw CozadDawson, NEEF-0 TORNADO WITH 5 MILE PATH LENGTH BEGAN 6 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF COZAD AND ENDED 5 MILES SOUTH-SOUTHEAST OF COZAD. MOST DAMAGE TOOK PLACE AT A FARM 5 MILES SOUTH OF COZAD ALONG HIGHWAY 21...INCLUDING A SHED ROOF BLO
06:43 UTCHAIL 0.75MillerBuffalo, NE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 23, 2008

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 235:34 PM EDTEF0Jones, NC0.220
June 235:47 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 236:15 PM MDTEF0Washington, CO0.150
June 238:40 PM CDTEF0Benson, ND0.225
June 2311:04 PM MDTEF0Hooker, NE0.120

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.