EF1 tornado, Diller to Shea, Nebraska, April 29, 2010

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

April 29, 2010

Touchdown

8:22 PM CDT (01:22 UTC)

Lifted

8:25 PM CDT (01:25 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.9 miles (4.7 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$650,000

County

Jefferson County

Touchdown point

40.100, -96.996

Lift-off point

40.137, -96.971

Record number

1004291922-01

A large upper level low pressure system over the northern plains brought gusty southwest winds and warm and relatively dry air to eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa during the afternoon of April 29th. By early evening strong south winds transporting more moist and unstable air caused thunderstorms to develop over north central Kansas near the intersection of the drier air and this more unstable airmass. These thunderstorms then tracked northeast into southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa aided by an increasing low level jet. The thunderstorms produced a modest amount of large hail reports and at least one tornado in southeast Nebraska. Areas of heavy rain also accompanied some of the activity.

An Assessment team from the NWS determined that a tornado tracked around 3 miles west through northwest of the Diller area. The damage path was around 300 yards at its widest. Trees and farm outbuildings were damaged along its path and 35 large power poles were snapped. A house in the area also sustained major damage to the roof and windows and the upper floor was partially shifted from the lower floor and a wall was bowed outward and garage destroyed. A center irrigation pivot was damaged at the tornadoes lifting point.

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 tornado watch, issued at 21:39 UTC and running to 05:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 126 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:19 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 2010 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.