Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2011
EF0 tornado, Max, Nebraska, June 19, 2011
This EF0 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Dundy County on June 19, 2011, touching down at 5:44 PM MDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $35,000 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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 19, 2011
- Touchdown
- 5:44 PM MDT (23:44 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:46 PM MDT (23:46 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 1.5 miles (2.4 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $35,000
- County
- Dundy County
- Touchdown point
- 40.193, -101.492
- Lift-off point
- 40.200, -101.463
- Record number
- 1106191744-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Several rounds of severe storms moved across southern Nebraska during the evening hours, resulting in three tornadoes over Dundy and Red Willow counties. None of the tornadoes resulted in significant damage as they remained over open fields.
Storm chaser reported the tornado remained mostly over open fields in rural Dundy county. Newspaper accounts stated that one center pivot system was overturned, and a barn roof was damaged.
Storm chaser reported this second tornado north of Benkelman about 15 minutes after the first tornado. This tornado was west of Highway 61 and also remained over open fields with no known damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
20 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:24 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:17 UTC and running to 03:12 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:17 UTC | 03:12 UTC | Tornado Watch | GLD |
| 23:04 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
| 23:24 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | GLD |
| 23:26 UTC | 05:45 UTC | Tornado Watch | GLD |
| 23:39 UTC | 00:31 UTC | Tornado Warning | GLD |
| 23:50 UTC | 00:29 UTC | Tornado Warning | GLD |
| 04:10 UTC | 04:22 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD |
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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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
11.7 hours before the tornado, 127 km from the path. June 19, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 324 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -277 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1660 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 19 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -18 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.3 K/km
N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z
0.3 hours after it, 127 km from the path. June 20, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1727 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -21 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2881 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1157 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 44 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 121 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 293 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 2.2
- Supercell composite
- 17.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.2 K/km
The surface observations
Imperial Municip (IML), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:53 UTC | 83 | 59 | 90° 16 kt | 22 | 1002.4 | |
| 22:53 UTC | 82 | 61 | 80° 17 kt | 23 | 1001.4 | |
| 23:50 UTC | 75.2 | 64.4 | 70° 18 kt | 999.3 | VCTS -RA | |
| 23:53 UTC | 74 | 64 | 80° 18 kt | 24 | 999.3 | VCTS -RA |
| 00:53 UTC | 70 | 64 | 40° 10 kt | 15 | 1001.4 | VCTS -RA |
| 01:36 UTC | 66.2 | 62.6 | 40° 12 kt | 1000.3 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Goodland radar (KGLD), 94 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:45 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wauneta | Chase, NE | STRONG WINDS OVER 60 MPH CAUSED EXTENSIVE LARGE TREE DAMAGE. STRUCTURAL DAMAGE TO A HOME BY A FALLEN TREE AND PIVOT IRRIGATION SYSTEM OVERTURNED. |
| 23:02 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | 10 Wnw Imperial | Chase, NE | |
| 23:44 UTC | TORNADO | 10 N Benkelman | Dundy, NE | TORNADO LASTED FOR 3 MINUTES. MULTIPLE SIGHTINGS OF THIS SAME TORNADO. |
| 23:47 UTC | TORNADO | 8 N Benkelman | Dundy, NE | TORNADO WAS IN AN OPEN FIELD AND LASTED 4 MINUTES. |
| 23:48 UTC | TORNADO | 8 S Wauneta | Dundy, NE | CHASE COUNTY SHERIFF REPORTED TORNADO 8 MILES SOUTH OF WANETA |
| 00:04 UTC | TORNADO | 13 Nne Benkelman | Dundy, NE | |
| 00:12 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 10 S Hayes Center | Hayes, NE | PUBLIC REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL 10 S OF HAYES CENTER |
| 00:12 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 10 Sw Hayes Center | Hayes, NE | PUBLIC REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL 10 SW OF HAYES CENTER |
| 00:13 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 6 Se Hayes Center | Hayes, NE | |
| 00:30 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | 10 Wnw Imperial | Chase, NE | TIME OF REPORT CORRECTED. |
| 00:40 UTC | TORNADO | 6 S Palisade | Hitchcock, NE | |
| 00:45 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 9 Se Hayes Center | Hayes, NE | GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL 9 SE OF HAYES CENTER |
| 02:00 UTC | HAIL 0.5 | 7 W Hayes Center | Hayes, NE | |
| 02:00 UTC | HAIL 1 | 7 Sw Hayes Center | Hayes, NE | |
| 02:23 UTC | TSTM WND GST 77 | Imperial | Chase, NE | IMPERIAL ASOS REPORTED A WIND GUST OF 77 MPH. DELAYED REPORT. |
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 19, 2011
13 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 19 | 1:57 AM CDT | EF0 | Crawford, MO | 1.3 | 60 | |||
| June 19 | 1:58 AM CDT | EF2 | Crawford, MO | 2.8 | 80 | 3 | $150,000 | |
| June 19 | 3:48 AM CDT | EF1 | Perry, IL | 3.2 | 250 | 1 | $550,000 | |
| June 19 | 6:31 AM CDT | EF0 | Perry, IN | 0.2 | 65 | |||
| June 19 | 6:39 AM CDT | EF2 | Breckinridge, KY | 1.0 | 60 | $50,000 | ||
| June 19 | 6:43 AM CDT | EF0 | Breckinridge, KY | 0.1 | 60 | $5,000 | ||
| June 19 | 3:00 PM CDT | EF0 | Winnebago, IA | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| June 19 | 3:55 PM CDT | EF0 | Dodge, WI | 0.1 | 20 | |||
| June 19 | 5:59 PM MDT | EF0 | Sedgwick, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 19 | 6:01 PM MDT | EF0 | Dundy, NE | 1.9 | 50 | |||
| June 19 | 8:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Morris, KS | 0.1 | 25 | |||
| June 19 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Red Willow, NE | 2.5 | 75 | |||
| June 19 | 10:07 PM CDT | EF0 | Atchison, MO | 0.5 | 40 |
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.