EF2 tornado, Pickrell to Filley, Nebraska, May 29, 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 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

May 29, 2008

Touchdown

11:25 PM CDT (04:25 UTC)

Lifted

11:43 PM CDT (04:43 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

10.8 miles (17.4 km)

Path width

440 yards (402 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Gage County

Touchdown point

40.340, -96.706

Lift-off point

40.352, -96.501

Record number

0805292225-01

A warm front lifted north across the region during the afternoon and evening of May 29th followed by a weak cool front passage later that night. As the warm front passed, temperatures warmed into the lower to mid 80s and dewpoint temperatures climbed into the 65 to 70 degree range. The whole system was aided by an intense upper level low pressure area that moved from the eastern Rockies into the northern plains. The combination of the high instability in place, the 2 fronts and the upper level disturbance created conditions that were favorable not only for severe thunderstorms, a few of which were supercells that produced tornadoes, but also areas of very heavy rainfall that produced flash flooding that night and river and stream flooding that lasted a day or two later.

A bow echo that moved across the Beatrice area spun up an EF2 tornado just north of town while south through east of town a narrow path of straight line wind damage occurred. The tornado touched down around 2 miles east of Highway 77 near Hackberry Road where it severely damaged two houses. Farm outbuildings were also severely damaged or destroyed. The tornado was rated an EF2 at that location. From there the tornado damaged a church on Elm Road with trees also snapped or uprooted in both areas as well. The tornado continued east northeast causing substantial tree and outbuilding damage to 10 more farmsteads, along with some house damage. Most of the damage occurred along Hackberry Road with the damage path around 1/4 mile wide. As the tornado worked its way east northeast toward Johnson county...the damage gradually weakened and the path narrowed. The tornado was estimated to have lifted a little northeast of Filley. Emergency management estimated that the tornado and the wind damage south through east of town caused at least a million dollars worth of damage.

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

33 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:52 UTC, 33 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:44 UTC and running to 07:00 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 00:39 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), 110 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:25 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

37 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.