EF0 tornado, Archer, Nebraska, June 14, 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

June 14, 2011

Touchdown

8:03 PM CDT (01:03 UTC)

Lifted

8:10 PM CDT (01:10 UTC)

On the ground

7 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.9 km)

Path width

25 yards (23 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Merrick County

Touchdown point

41.234, -98.117

Lift-off point

41.236, -98.107

Record number

1106141903-01

The early to mid-evening hours on this Tuesday ended up being more active severe weather-wise than originally anticipated for several counties north of Interstate 80 in South Central Nebraska. Primarily between 7 and 10 PM CDT, a cluster of strong to severe thunderstorms pushed through areas primarily north of a line from near Loup City to York, before exiting into southeast Nebraska. The majority of severe weather reports focused across Valley, Nance, Merrick and Polk Counties. Although these storms resulted in several reports of large hail up to golf ball size, and a few reports of strong winds of 50-60 MPH, the most dominant supercell storm of the evening also spawned a weak tornado that was on the ground for several minutes in northern Merrick County. No damage was reported from this tornado, and photographs revealed that it was landspout in nature, featuring a translucent condensation funnel. Hail-wise, the largest stones to golf ball size were reported near the communities of Spalding and Clarks. Well to the south of the main storm cluster, a smaller, weaker cluster of storms developed along an outflow boundary from the northern storms, with one of these storms dropping penny size hail in Hastings. ||On the synoptic scale, the primary trigger for thunderstorms was a broad mid-level trough passing through the Central Plains. The initial severe storm development took place during the mid to late-afternoon hours in north central Nebraska along an inverted surface trough axis, extending northwest from a weak low pressure center near Kansas City. As the northern Nebraska storms dropped southeast into the local area, they became increasingly organized, taking full advantage of a mesoscale environment featuring 1500-2500 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE, but only modest deep-layer vertical wind shear around 30 knots.

A weak tornado touched down in northern Merrick County, with no damage reported.

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.

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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:57 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.

Grand Island (GRI), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 105 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:04 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

4 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.