Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2013

EF0 tornado, Irwin, Nebraska, June 16, 2013

This EF0 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Cherry County on June 16, 2013, touching down at 2:41 PM MDT and reaching 35 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 16, 2013
Touchdown
2:41 PM MDT (20:41 UTC)
Lifted
2:42 PM MDT (20:42 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
35 yards (32 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cherry County
Touchdown point
42.330, -101.950
Lift-off point
42.330, -101.950
Record number
1306161441-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LBF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

  • Brief touchdown with no visible damage.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

Storms formed along an outflow boundry pushing southeastward out of South Dakota. A brief tornado was reported in an open field.

The tornado formed 25 miles north northwest of Hyannis in Cherry County. The tornado briefly touched down in an open field and dissipated. No damage was reported with the tornado rated as an EF0. Average path width was 35 yards and a path length .20 miles.

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

The warnings

1 minute of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:40 UTC, 1 minute before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 19:15 UTC and running to 01:05 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:15 UTC01:05 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLBF
20:32 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
20:40 UTC21:15 UTCTornado WarningLBF
20:55 UTC21:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
21:13 UTC21:45 UTCTornado WarningLBF
21:42 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
21:46 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
22:27 UTC22:43 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 19:58 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

8.7 hours before the tornado, 174 km from the path. June 16, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2013-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2248 joules per kilogram, CIN -45, lifted condensation level 659 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2013-06-16The 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 87 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
2248 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-45 J/kg
Surface CAPE
245 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
659 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
87 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
101 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
8.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

3.3 hours after it, 174 km from the path. June 17, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2013-06-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 309 joules per kilogram, CIN -101, lifted condensation level 1341 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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 2013-06-17The 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 342 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 76 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
309 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-101 J/kg
Surface CAPE
197 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1341 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
76 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
342 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
535 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
1.5
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 121 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:43 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
20:41 UTCTORNADO25 Nnw HyannisCherry, NEPUBLIC REPORTED TORNADO RELAYED VIA CHERRY COUNTY SHERIFF OFICE.
21:00 UTCHAIL 1.7520 Nw HyannisCherry, NETIME IS ESTIMATED BY RADAR
21:15 UTCHAIL 2.520 N HyannisCherry, NE
21:20 UTCHAIL 2.7510 N HyannisCherry, NEDELAYED REPORT
21:55 UTCHAIL 1.755 Ne WhitmanCherry, NE
22:10 UTCHAIL 1.2523 Ssw RushvilleSheridan, NE
22:38 UTCHAIL 1AshbyGrant, NE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

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.