EF1 tornado, Hickman to South Bend, Nebraska, March 23, 2009

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

March 23, 2009

Touchdown

4:41 PM CDT (21:41 UTC)

Lifted

4:51 PM CDT (21:51 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

10.8 miles (17.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

5

Counties

Lancaster, Otoe and Cass counties

Touchdown point

40.682, -96.551

Lift-off point

40.805, -96.427

Record number

0903231541-01

An intense upper level low pressure system tracked from eastern Colorado into southeast South Dakota from March 23rd into March 24th. This caused a surface low pressure system to move from western Nebraska into southeast South Dakota during that time. As the low tracked northeast, a dry-line moved into eastern Nebraska during the afternoon of March 23rd. With surface temperatures in the 60s and 70s, and dewpoint temperatures in the 50s, ample instability was in place to allow a line of severe thunderstorms to develop as the dry-line punched eastward. Several fast moving low-topped supercell thunderstorms were embedded in the line, and one cell produced cyclic tornadoes from southeast of Lincoln into western Iowa. The storms in the line were moving north northeast at 50 to 60 mph. In addition to the severe weather, strong southerly gradient winds prevailed ahead of the low pressure. In some cases the winds gusted between 50 and 65 mph for several hours across parts of eastern Nebraska.

This is the first of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln. The first tornado touched down around 4 miles south of Hickman uprooting some trees and causing farm outbuilding and other tree damage along its path.

This is the second of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln area. This tornado touched down around 2 miles east of Hickman and damaged a house in the area, destroyed some farm outbuildings, took the roof off of a barn and also caused tree damage.

This is the third of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln area. This tornado touched down around 2.5 miles west of Bennet, in Lancaster county, tracked northeast clipping the far northwest corner of Otoe county and then lifted around 1.5 miles into the southwest corner of Cass county. In Lancaster county the tornado uprooted trees and caused farm outbuilding damage. In Cass county the tornado destroyed a garage and tossed the debris into a occupied car injuring 5 people. The total path length was around 11 miles.

This is the third and longest tracked of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln. This tornado touched down around 2.5 miles west of Bennet, in Lancaster county, tracked northeast clipping the far northwest corner of Otoe county and then lifted around 1.5 miles into the southwest corner of Cass county. In Otoe county the tornado caused tree and farm outbuilding damage. In Cass county the tornado destroyed a garage and tossed the debris into a occupied car injuring 5 people. The total path length was around 11 miles.

This is the third and longest tracked of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln area. This tornado touched down around 2.5 miles west of Bennet, in Lancaster county, tracked northeast clipping the far northwest corner of Otoe county and then lifted around 1.5 miles into the southwest corner of Cass county. In Cass county the tornado destroyed a garage and tossed the debris into a occupied car injuring 5 people. Other tree and farm outbuilding damage was noted. The total path length was around 11 miles.

This is the fourth of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln area. This tornado touched down on the southwest side of Eagle and caused tree and some building damage along its path before lifting around 1 mile south of Alvo. Three people sustained minor injures near Alvo when a tree fell onto a truck they were in.

This is the fifth and last of 5 cyclic tornadoes that a low-topped supercell thunderstorm produced at it tracked southeast through east of the Lincoln area. This tornado touched down in Alvo and tracked a little over 10 miles north northeast before lifting just west of South Bend. The tornado knocked down power poles and transmission lines, snapped trees and damaged houses and destroyed farm out buildings along its path. One of the downed power lines fell on a car trapping its occupant for several hours. Several cars were crushed by fallen trees in the Alvo area. From the 3 confirmed tornadoes that hit the county, plus any associated wind damage, emergency management estimated that 30 homes had minor damage with 4 sustaining major damage and 60 to 80 farm outbuildings were damaged with the total damage approaching $1 million.

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

29 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 21:12 UTC, 29 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:52 UTC and running to 22:51 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:42 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), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:41 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

18 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.