EF0 tornado, North Platte to (Lbf)Bird Fld North, Nebraska, April 14, 2012

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

April 14, 2012

Touchdown

5:32 PM CDT (22:32 UTC)

Lifted

5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

20 yards (18 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lincoln County

Touchdown point

41.080, -100.798

Lift-off point

41.087, -100.798

Record number

1204141632-01

A strong low pressure system produced widespread severe weather across the central plains on April 14th. Storms developed over central Nebraska in the late morning hours which produced large hail over portions of Garfield and Wheeler counties. Around the middle of the afternoon, more storms developed over southwest Nebraska in the vicinity of a dry line and warm front as a surface low was placed over Keith and Perkins counties. These storms produced very large hail, several tornadoes, numerous funnel clouds, and heavy rain. The heaviest hit areas were across Lincoln, Logan, and Custer counties as storms continued to develop and move over these areas before finally moving east into eastern Nebraska by late evening. Although several tornadoes occurred, they were all weak and did not produce any damage. Damage from these storms was from large hail.

A tornado developed and briefly touched down in a field with no damage reported.

A rope tornado briefly touched down in open rangeland with no damage reported.

A tornado briefly touched down west of Lake Maloney in open rangeland with no damage reported.

A tornado touched down west of Lake Maloney and was on the ground for 10 minutes. It traveled a half mile before lifting across open rangeland.

A tornado was on the ground for several minutes and approached State Farm Road on the southwest side of North Platte. No damage occurred from this tornado.

The tornado briefly touched down just south of the Flying J Truckstop, southeast of North Platte. No damage occurred from this tornado.

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

13 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:19 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:45 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:33 UTC and running to 01:19 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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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 North Platte radar (KLNX), 99 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:32 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 2012 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

83 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 84 of them

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.