Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2011
EF0 tornado, O Neill, Nebraska, May 30, 2011
This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Holt County on May 30, 2011, touching down at 6:52 PM CDT and reaching 20 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.
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
- May 30, 2011
- Touchdown
- 6:52 PM CDT (23:52 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:53 PM CDT (23:53 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.0 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Holt County
- Touchdown point
- 42.468, -98.598
- Lift-off point
- 42.468, -98.598
- Record number
- 1105301752-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A powerful low pressure system moved across western and north central Nebraska on Memorial Day. Thunderstorms developed along a cold front extending across central Nebraska. The storms tracked quickly northeast to produce hail up to 4 inches in diameter, damaging winds and several tornadoes.
Law enforcement confirmed a tornado on the eastern edge of O'Neill. In addition there was a lot of dust picked up over an open corn field by the rear flank downdraft that made it difficult to view. The tornado was briefly on the ground with no damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
12 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:40 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:10 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:00 UTC | 23:22 UTC | Wind Advisory | LBF |
| 15:00 UTC | 08:57 UTC | High Wind Watch | LBF |
| 19:10 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Watch | LBF |
| 21:47 UTC | 22:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 22:10 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 22:43 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 22:46 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 23:11 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LBF |
| 23:40 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 23:54 UTC | 00:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
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 19:51 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
11.9 hours before the tornado, 223 km from the path. May 30, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1099 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -360 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 941 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2078 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 38 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 296 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 302 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.3 K/km
N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z
0.1 hours after it, 223 km from the path. May 31, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 634 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -231 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2342 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2144 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 79 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 18 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 144 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -1.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.5 K/km
The radar
The North Platte radar (KLNX), 172 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:00 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | 6 Sw Atkinson | Holt, NE | BASEBALL SIZED HAIL 6 MILES SOUTHWEST OF ATKINSON. |
| 22:05 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Atkinson | Holt, NE | DISPATCHER RELAYED REPORT OF TORNADO 3 MILES SOUTH OF ATKINSON. LOTS OF DEBRIS REPORTED ALONG HIGHWAY 11. |
| 22:10 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | Atkinson | Holt, NE | BASEBALL SIZED HAIL FALLING 1 MILE SOUTH OF ATKINSON ON HIGHWAY 11. |
| 22:10 UTC | HAIL 4 | Atkinson | Holt, NE | AT LEAST GRAPEFRUIT SIZE HAIL REPORTED IN THE CENTER OF ATKINSON. TIME OF REPORT WAS 510 PM CDT. |
| 22:11 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | Atkinson | Holt, NE | BASEBALL SIZE HAIL FALLING IN SOUTHWEST PART OF ATKINSON. |
| 22:13 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 Se Stuart | Holt, NE | GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL FALLING JUST SOUTHEAST OF STUART AS REPORTED BY DEPUTIES. |
| 22:13 UTC | HAIL 2.75 | Atkinson | Holt, NE | BASEBALL HAIL FALLING AT COUNTRY CLUB AND ELSEWHERE IN ATKINSON. |
| 22:16 UTC | HAIL 2 | 3 Ne Atkinson | Holt, NE | |
| 22:17 UTC | HAIL 4 | 3 Ese Atkinson | Holt, NE | NEARLY GRAPEFRUIT SIZE HAIL SIZE MEASURED BY STORM CHASER. ACTUAL DIAMETER OF STONE WAS 3.5 INCHES. |
| 22:30 UTC | TORNADO | 5 N Atkinson | Holt, NE | DEPUTIES REPORT 3 TORNADOES ON THE GROUND. 873RD ROAD AND 487TH AVENUE IS APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF REPORT. |
| 22:30 UTC | TORNADO | 5 N Oneill | Holt, NE | DEPUTIES REPORT 3 TORNADOES ON THE GROUND. 873RD ROAD AND 487TH AVENUE IS APPROXIMATE LOCATION OF REPORT. |
| 23:26 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 1 Sw Atkinson | Holt, NE | |
| 23:26 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Atkinson | Holt, NE | COOPERATIVE OBSERVER REPORTED GOLF BALL SIZED HAIL IN ATKINSON. |
| 23:33 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N Oneill | Holt, NE | LOTS OF ROTATION. SEVERAL FUNNELS REPORTED BY STORM CHASER. ONE BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN AND SAW A POWER FLASH. |
| 23:39 UTC | HAIL 0.88 | Emmet | Holt, NE | NICKEL SIZED HAIL FELL FOR A FOUR MINUTE PERIOD. |
| 23:40 UTC | TORNADO | 2 Ne Oneill | Holt, NE | 2 TORNADOES ON THE GROUND 2 MILES NORTHEAST OF ONEILL AS REPORTED BY THE FIRE CHIEF. |
| 23:50 UTC | TORNADO | 6 Se Atkinson | Holt, NE | STORM CHASER ESTIMATES TORNADO 1/8 MILE WIDE. LOCATION WAS ALONG OLD HIGHWAY 20 AND HIGHWAY 281. |
| 23:52 UTC | TORNADO | Oneill | Holt, NE | 2 TORNADOES CONFIRMED ON EASTERN EDGE OF ONEILL BY POLICE CHIEF AND DEPUTY AND RELAYED BY DISPATCH. NO DAMAGE REPORTS THUS FAR. |
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 May 30, 2011
15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 30 | 3:04 PM MDT | EF0 | Adams, CO | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 30 | 4:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Rock, NE | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| May 30 | 4:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Blaine, NE | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| May 30 | 5:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Holt, NE | 0.0 | 20 | |||
| May 30 | 6:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Charles Mix, SD | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 30 | 7:34 PM CDT | EF0 | Dawson, NE | 0.4 | 25 | |||
| May 30 | 8:12 PM CDT | EF0 | Lake, SD | 0.7 | 50 | |||
| May 30 | 8:22 PM CDT | EF0 | Lake, SD | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 30 | 8:46 PM CDT | EF2 | Richland, ND | 4.3 | 600 | $550,000 | ||
| May 30 | 8:52 PM CDT | EF1 | Cass, ND | 2.3 | 150 | $250,000 | ||
| May 30 | 8:55 PM CDT | EF2 | Cass, ND | 4.0 | 400 | $600,000 | ||
| May 30 | 9:01 PM CDT | EF1 | Clay, MN | 4.5 | 200 | $250,000 | ||
| May 30 | 9:03 PM CDT | EF2 | Cass, ND | 7.4 | 600 | $750,000 | ||
| May 30 | 9:26 PM CDT | EF1 | Polk, MN | 9.0 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| May 30 | 10:35 PM CDT | EF1 | Hubbard, MN | 6.0 | 300 | $600,000 |
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.