Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska

2009 tornadoes in Nebraska

38 tornadoes touched down in Nebraska in 2009, 10 percent below the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

2008 2010 The whole country in 2009

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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.

Every tornado in Nebraska in 2009

March 23 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
March 23	12:45 PM MDT	EF0	Cherry	0.1	10		$500
March 23	3:24 PM CDT	EF2	Holt	0.2	10		$20,000
March 23	4:15 PM CDT	EF1	Knox	1.8	75
March 23	4:31 PM CDT	EF1	Lancaster	2.4	50
March 23	4:36 PM CDT	EF2	Lancaster	1.6	50
March 23	4:41 PM CDT	EF1	Lancaster	10.8	50	5
March 23	4:52 PM CDT	EF1	Cass	4.0	50	3
March 23	4:59 PM CDT	EF1	Cass	10.7	880		$1.0 million

April 4 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
April 4	3:40 PM CDT	EF0	Clay	3.0	50	$60,000
April 4	4:45 PM CDT	EF0	Clay	0.1	25
April 4	5:15 PM CDT	EF0	Gage	2.5	75

May 12 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 12	6:21 PM MDT	EF0	Hooker	3.5	10			$5,000

May 23 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 23	3:27 PM CDT	EF0	Lincoln	0.1	10

June 1 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 1	9:57 PM CDT	EF0	Red Willow	0.5	25

June 5 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 5	5:49 PM MDT	EF0	Banner	0.1	30
June 5	9:53 PM MDT	EF0	Keith	0.1	20			$6,000

June 9 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 9	2:12 PM MDT	EF0	Cheyenne	0.1	30
June 9	3:15 PM MDT	EF0	Cherry	0.1	10

June 10 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 10	12:59 PM MDT	EF0	Scotts Bluff	0.1	40
June 10	2:38 PM MDT	EF0	Morrill	3.7	30			$10,000

June 15 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 15	4:32 PM CDT	EF0	Lincoln	0.1	20
June 15	8:18 PM CDT	EF0	Adams	0.7	250	$50,000
June 15	8:37 PM CDT	EF0	Buffalo	0.1	20

June 17 8 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 17	2:18 PM CDT	EF0	Gage	0.5	25
June 17	6:54 PM CDT	EF1	Buffalo	1.1	200	$100,000
June 17	7:05 PM CDT	EF0	Buffalo	0.2	25
June 17	7:10 PM CDT	EF0	Buffalo	3.6	100
June 17	7:50 PM CDT	EF0	Custer	0.1	20
June 17	8:38 PM CDT	EF0	Hall	1.9	20	$5,000
June 17	8:50 PM CDT	EF0	Hamilton	1.0	25
June 17	8:59 PM CDT	EF2	Hamilton	5.1	450	$250,000

June 23 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 23	7:07 PM CDT	EF0	Logan	3.0	20
June 23	8:54 PM CDT	EF0	Custer	0.1	30

June 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 24	11:43 PM CDT	EF2	Rock	4.6	20			$200,000

June 26 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 26	8:15 PM CDT	EF0	Lincoln	0.1	20			$750
June 26	8:22 PM CDT	EF1	Lincoln	0.1	20			$152,000

July 13 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 13	8:20 PM MDT	EF2	Cherry	0.1	20			$25,000

September 24 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
September 24	2:45 PM CDT	EF0	Furnas	0.1	20

Crossed into Nebraska

Tornadoes that touched down in a neighboring state and ran into Nebraska. They are counted under the state they began in.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 7	2:03 PM CDT	EF0	Banner, WY to NE	5.5	25

Nearby

Every tornado in Nebraska since 1950 Warnings in force in Nebraska The live radar over Nebraska

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.