EF1 tornado, Ulysses to Dwight, Nebraska, June 4, 2008

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

June 4, 2008

Touchdown

8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)

Lifted

8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.8 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Butler County

Touchdown point

41.083, -97.115

Lift-off point

41.087, -97.009

Record number

0806041900-01

A stationary front over Kansas started lifting north on June 4th as an unseasonably strong upper level low pressure system was organizing over the central Rockies. This allowed very warm and unstable air to feed north into southern Nebraska and southwest Iowa during the afternoon on the 4th. Severe thunderstorms that developed by early afternoon on June 4 over central Nebraska quickly spread and developed into eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa through evening. A few tornadic producing supercells developed over the area...and many of the storms contained very heavy rain which fell on soils that were already saturated from significant rains recorded over the prior week. This caused areas of flash flooding and subsequent river flooding.

This tornado started about 4 miles southwest of Ulysses in Seward county, crossed into Butler county about 1.5 miles south of Ulysses and then lifted around 1 mile east southeast of town. The tornado flipped irrigation center pivots along its path and caused tree and farm outbuilding damage. It was rated an EF1 in both Seward and Butler counties. The total path length in both counties was a little over 5 miles.

This tornado touched down about 1 1/2 miles west of Ulysses, traveled east across town and then lifted around 2 1/2 miles east of town. The tornado heavily damaged 4 homes west of town and also caused tree and farm outbuilding damage and flipped dozens of center pivots. Power lines were also downed, causing 500 residents to lose power for 24 hours or more. Homes in Ulysses also sustained damage as did the Farmers Cooperative Elevator. This is the second tornado that spun up from a large supercell thunderstorm that moved across the area.

This tornado was apparently embedded in a downburst or series of downbursts that caused damage from east of Ulysses through the Ceresco and Valparaiso areas in Saunders county. The tornado damaged a grain bin and trees when it initially touched down and caused other damage along its relatively narrow path. This tornado was from the same supercell thunderstorm that produced 2 earlier tornadoes near Ulysses.

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

38 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:22 UTC, 38 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:46 UTC and running to 01:50 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:43 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.

Lincoln (LNK), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 64 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:55 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 2008 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

45 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.