EF0 tornado, Upland, Nebraska, July 13, 2011

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

July 13, 2011

Touchdown

9:04 PM CDT (02:04 UTC)

Lifted

9:05 PM CDT (02:05 UTC)

On the ground

1 minutes

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

40.269, -98.833

Lift-off point

40.269, -98.832

Record number

1107132004-01

For several hours between the mid-afternoon and late-evening on this Wednesday, a few supercell storms affected portions of South Central Nebraska. The majority of severe weather focused in two separate areas, one north of Interstate 80, and the other, more significant zone, south of Interstate 80 and west of Highway 281. Although large hail, damaging winds and locally heavy rainfall were the main issues, a pair of brief EF0 tornadoes occurred near Upland in northern Franklin County, with no damage reported. A few of the more notable hail and wind reports included golf ball size hail in southwest Furnas County and estimated 65 MPH winds in the Franklin area, with the roof of a storage shed peeled back just north of town. Rainfall wise, some of the heaviest downpours targeted Howard and Franklin Counties. Observers in the Dannebrog and St. Paul areas reported nearly 3 inches of rain, while in Franklin, 3.43 inches fell in a short time, resulting in localized flooding. After sunrise the next morning, the Thompson Creek at Riverton briefly exceeded flood stage of 10 feet. ||Focusing on timing and evolution, storms south of Interstate 80 first blossomed around 530 PM CDT as a supercell formed over Furnas County. The second and most noteworthy supercell in this southern area took shape over Kearney County around 7 PM CDT, before making a right turn southeast into Franklin County and producing the brief tornadoes. The storms north of Interstate 80 developed earlier on, first becoming strong in Howard and northern Hall Counties around 4 PM CDT. Additional storms continued to regenerate over this area, with one small supercell eventually tracking east into Merrick County around 7 PM CDT, dropping quarter size hail. All storms in South Central Nebraska weakened considerably or faded away altogether by midnight CDT.||There were both pros and cons regarding the risk for severe weather on this day. Working against a viable threat was overall weak large-scale forcing and strong capping, with only subtle shortwaves aloft rippling through west-southwest flow between a ridge dominating the southern states and a trough centered over the Pacific Northwest. On the other hand, the mesoscale environment became increasingly supportive of severe storms as the afternoon wore on, with the dominant supercells south of I-80 focused along an east-west surface front draped near the Nebraska-Kansas border. As easterly surface winds pooled considerable moisture and instability north of this boundary, mesoscale parameters during the mid-evening hours featured around 3000 J/kg MLCAPE, but only around 30 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear. However, the surface front enhanced low level shear and resultant brief tornado development, with 0-1 kilometer storm relative helicity increasing to over 200 m2/s2.

A brief touchdown was reported approximately 4 miles southwest of Upland. No damage was reported from this tornado.

A second brief touchdown was reported approximately 5 miles southeast of Upland. No damage was reported from this tornado.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:50 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 21:43 UTC and running to 04:00 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 00:49 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 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), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:01 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 2011 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.