EF1 tornado, Harrisburg, Nebraska, June 22, 2013

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   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

EF1

Date

June 22, 2013

Touchdown

4:50 PM MDT (22:50 UTC)

Lifted

5:05 PM MDT (23:05 UTC)

On the ground

15 minutes

Path length

7.9 miles (12.7 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Banner County

Touchdown point

41.670, -104.020

Lift-off point

41.650, -103.870

Record number

1306221650-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CYS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Pivot overturned to the northeast.
• Multiple power poles snapped.
• Six power poles snapped along CR 40.
• Pivots on the east side of plot. Fallen over to the north.

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

Severe thunderstorms over southeast Wyoming moved east and southeast into the southern Nebraska Panhandle during the late afternoon and early evening. These storms produced large hail, strong winds, very heavy rain and a few tornadoes.

A storm survey team from the National Weather Service in Cheyenne rated the June 22 2013 Banner County Nebraska tornado as a EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with maximum three second wind gusts of 100 mph. The tornado, which developed from a high precipitation supercell thunderstorm, touched down about 17 miles west-northwest of Harrisburg Nebraska. The tornado moved to the east-southeast for several miles before dissipating about 10 miles northwest of Harrisburg. A total of eight structures were damaged with at least one outbuilding destroyed. The outbuilding was supported by large wooden planks about six inches thick...most of which were snapped at the center. The roof was removed from a three stall garage but all of the walls remained intact. A two-story hone was damaged by flying debris, with a 2 X 4 inch plank driven through the second floor wall by the tornadic winds. Sheet metal and wooden boards from damaged outbuildings were found 50 to 100 yards to the northwest in a shelter belt. Multiple other structures suffered roof damage with sections of sheet metal peeled off. Six power poles were snapped near the touchdown site with another damaged east of Stegall Road. Several six to 12 inch diameter hardwood trees were also snapped. Center pivots were either flipped or twisted in multiple directions along the tornado's path.

A weak tornado was on the ground northeast of Harrisburg. The tornado moved east across open country for several minutes before dissipating. No damage was reported.

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

6 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:44 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:15 UTC and running to 02:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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 Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:50 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 2013 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.