EF1 tornado, Polaks Arpt to Ceresco, 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

8:55 PM CDT (01:55 UTC)

Lifted

9:00 PM CDT (02:00 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

4.9 miles (7.9 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Saunders County

Touchdown point

41.071, -96.699

Lift-off point

41.076, -96.606

Record number

0806041955-01

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 around 5 miles west and 1 mile south of Ceresco. West of town a barn was destroyed along with farm outbuildings. There was also substantial tree damage in the area and the metal panels of a farm building were strewn around power poles and across a field. Considerable tree and building damage occurred in the town of Ceresco, including the roof taken off of a restaurant/bar. Four homes in town were declared uninhabitable due to storm damage and another 71 sustained some sort of damage. In addition around 30 homes outside of town were damaged. Storm debris was scattered across Highway 77 which prompted its closure that continued well into the next day. The tornado probably traveled farther east of town than a mile as a local newspaper later reported that farm outbuilding and tree damage consistent with tornado damage was noted at several farmsteads 4 to 6 miles east of Ceresco. However, downed power lines limited the eastward extent of the NWS storm survey. Power was knocked out across much of town for several days with at least 225 power poles destroyed or severely damaged.

A second tornado spun up while the first tornado to its south was dissipating. This tornado affected mainly the northern end of Ceresco downing trees and power lines and causing some building damage. This tornado could have also possibly traveled farther east, but the survey was limited due to downed power lines.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:32 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 01:50 UTC and running to 08:59 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.

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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.