Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2010

EF1 tornado, Cedar Creek, Nebraska, June 1, 2010

This EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Cass County on June 1, 2010, touching down at 6:05 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $4,000 of property damage.

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.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF1
Date
June 1, 2010
Touchdown
6:05 PM CDT (23:05 UTC)
Lifted
6:06 PM CDT (23:06 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$4,000
County
Cass County
Touchdown point
41.004, -96.064
Lift-off point
41.002, -96.054
Record number
1006011705-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Supercell thunderstorms developed from west of Columbus toward and east of Norfolk as a warm front pressed north toward that region as a cold front was dropping south through northern Nebraska. South of the warm front temperatures climbed to around 90 degrees with dewpoint temperatures around 70. Meanwhile north of the cold front temperatures were in the 60s and 70s. As the two boundaries merged in the late afternoon the storms merged into a line which pushed southeast across the Omaha and Lincoln areas. The northern end of the storms caused wind damage across the northern sections of Omaha and was the beginning of a derecho which caused wind damage to parts of 3 other states as it swept eastward. The storms also produced numerous reports of large hail and at least 2 weak tornadoes.

A brief tornado touchdown caused damage to a pole barn before lifting near Highway 66.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:59 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:54 UTC and running to 02:32 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
13:46 UTC18:54 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchOAX
18:54 UTC02:32 UTCTornado WatchOAX
22:59 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:03 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate 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 19:49 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 air that afternoon

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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

11.1 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. June 1, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2010-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1529 joules per kilogram, CIN -110, lifted condensation level 815 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2010-06-01The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1529 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-110 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
815 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
14 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

0.9 hours after it, 44 km from the path. June 2, 2010.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2010-06-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 173 joules per kilogram, CIN -308, lifted condensation level 1061 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2010-06-02The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -108 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
173 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-308 J/kg
Surface CAPE
134 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1061 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-108 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
27 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:07 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:18 UTCHAIL 0.881 S BlairWashington, NE
22:19 UTCHAIL 0.88BlairWashington, NE
22:20 UTCHAIL 1.53 Wsw BenningtonDouglas, NE
22:20 UTCHAIL 1.75BlairWashington, NE
22:25 UTCHAIL 0.75OmahaDouglas, NE
22:25 UTCHAIL 1.5GretnaSarpy, NE
22:30 UTCTSTM WND DMGOmahaDouglas, NESEVERAL TREES DOWN COVERING 72ND STREET NORTH OF HIGHWAY 36. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR
22:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 62BlairWashington, NE
22:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 71BlairWashington, NE
22:38 UTCTSTM WND GST 60OmahaDouglas, NE
22:44 UTCTSTM WND GST 60ElkhornDouglas, NE
22:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 50OmahaDouglas, NE
22:45 UTCTSTM WND GST 60OmahaDouglas, NE
22:49 UTCHAIL 1OmahaDouglas, NE
22:50 UTCHAIL 0.885 Se GretnaSarpy, NE
22:52 UTCHAIL 1.5GretnaSarpy, NE
22:54 UTCHAIL 1OmahaDouglas, NE
22:55 UTCHAIL 1GretnaSarpy, NE
22:55 UTCHAIL 1OmahaDouglas, NE
22:59 UTCTSTM WND GST 60OmahaDouglas, NE
23:02 UTCHAIL 1PapillionSarpy, NE
23:02 UTCTORNADO8 Wnw PlattsmouthCass, NE
23:03 UTCTSTM WND GST 701 E BenningtonDouglas, NETREES DOWN
23:04 UTCTSTM WND GST 54Offutt AfbSarpy, NE
23:10 UTCHAIL 0.88OmahaDouglas, NE
23:35 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.84PapillionSarpy, NE
23:40 UTCHAIL 1LincolnLancaster, NEEAST SIDE
23:41 UTCTSTM WND DMGOmahaDouglas, NETREES DOWN ON HWY

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 1, 2010

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 11:22 PM CDTEF0O'Brien, IA0.350
June 12:58 PM CDTEF0Wayne, NE1.4100
June 15:08 PM CDTEF2Ringgold, IA1.5250$4.0 million
June 15:54 PM MDTEF0Johnson, WY0.125

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.