EF0 tornado, Fairfield, Nebraska, April 4, 2009

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

April 4, 2009

Touchdown

3:40 PM CDT (20:40 UTC)

Lifted

3:45 PM CDT (20:45 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

3.0 miles (4.9 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

40.397, -98.102

Lift-off point

40.430, -98.139

Record number

0904041440-01

A strong early spring system impacted South Central Nebraska during the first weekend in April. A large upper level low pressure system moved out of the southern Rocky Mountains and crossed the Central Plains. A tight pressure gradient brought a windy start to the weekend, and along with increasing large scale ascent and expansion of precipitation across the area, a surface boundary helped to provide a focus for afternoon thunderstorm development. The slow progress of this system had allowed for more moisture to work into the region, and with plenty of shear available, some thunderstorms became severe, dropping pea to half dollar size hail. Two brief, weak tornadoes touched down in Clay County, causing some damage near Fairfield, where outbuildings were destroyed, a roof was torn off a barn, and two homes were damaged.

This tornado started south of Fairfield, where a roof was blown off of a barn and power lines were downed. This tornado then moved to the northwest, coming to an end just west of Fairfield, destroying three outbuildings and causing damage to two homes along its path.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:10 UTC and running to 23:19 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Hastings (HSI), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:41 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 2009 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.