Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2011

EF0 tornado, Merritt Res, Nebraska, June 13, 2011

This EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Cherry County on June 13, 2011, touching down at 5:31 PM MDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 13, 2011
Touchdown
5:31 PM MDT (23:31 UTC)
Lifted
5:36 PM MDT (23:36 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cherry County
Touchdown point
42.566, -101.320
Lift-off point
42.571, -101.308
Record number
1106131731-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An isolated severe thunderstorm in Cherry county Nebraska moved discretely along an existing boundary and produced large hail and a tornado.

A large tornado touched down in open range land with no damage.

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

The warnings

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 22:25 UTC and running to 04:56 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
06:37 UTC07:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
07:15 UTC08:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
22:25 UTC04:56 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLBF
23:04 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
23:39 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
23:48 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningLBF
00:07 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
00:14 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningLBF
00:30 UTC01:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
00:59 UTC01:28 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
01:15 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
01:27 UTC02:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:51 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 171 km from the path. June 13, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2011-06-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2140 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 486 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2011-06-13The 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 78 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2140 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2369 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
486 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
86 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.1
Supercell composite
4.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 171 km from the path. June 14, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2011-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1360 joules per kilogram, CIN -192, lifted condensation level 692 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2011-06-14The 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 -67 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
1360 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-192 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1902 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
692 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-67 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 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
23:17 UTCHAIL 1.7510 S CodyCherry, NEPUBLIC REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL AND VERY HEAVY RAIN
23:47 UTCTORNADO35 N MullenCherry, NEOFF DUTY NWS EMPLOYEE SITUATED ON HIGHWAY 97 SPOTTED A STOUT TORNADO BECOMING RAIN WRAPPED TO HIS WEST ABOUT 16 MILES OR 11 MILES SOUTH OF SCHOOLHOUSE LAKE
23:47 UTCTORNADO35 N MullenCherry, NETRAINED SPOTTERS REPORTED A TORNADO 11 MILES SOUTH OF SCHOOLHOUSE LAKE
00:00 UTCTORNADO38 Nne WhitmanCherry, NEBRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN WITH AN ESTIMATED LOCATION AND TIME.
00:31 UTCHAIL 2.7525 S CodyCherry, NEPUBLIC REPORTED BASEBALL SIZED HAIL WITH HOME WINDOWS BROKEN
00:31 UTCTORNADO25 S CodyCherry, NEPUBLIC REPORTED A LARGE TORNADO NEAR TAYLOR LAKE
00:38 UTCHAIL 136 S CodyCherry, NE
00:40 UTCHAIL 2.7538 S CodyCherry, NE
01:02 UTCHAIL 0.8830 S MerrimanCherry, NE
01:05 UTCHAIL 0.758 W CodyCherry, NE
01:35 UTCHAIL 117 Ne WhitmanCherry, NEMAINLY NICKEL SIZED HAIL WITH LARGER QUARTER SIZE HAILSTONES MIXED IN

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 13, 2011

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1312:10 PM CDTEF1Greene, AR3.3150$120,000
June 137:00 PM CDTEF0Steele, ND0.220

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.