EF2 tornado, Bennet to Hickman, Nebraska, October 3, 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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

October 3, 2013

Touchdown

10:08 PM CDT (03:08 UTC)

Lifted

10:34 PM CDT (03:34 UTC)

On the ground

26 minutes

Path length

11.2 miles (18.0 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Lancaster County

Touchdown point

40.683, -96.464

Lift-off point

40.595, -96.641

Record number

1310032108-01

A powerful storm system moved into the central Plains on the 3rd of October and allowed for low pressure developed over the western high Plains. Ahead of this low, unseasonably warm and humid air streamed north from the Gulf of Mexico. The combination of the warm humid air and the strong upper level storm system created an atmosphere of high instability and strong shear across parts of eastern Nebraska. As a warm front slowly lifted north into southeast Nebraska during the evening of the 3rd, isolated supercell thunderstorms developed. These storms were responsible for large hail, some significant, damaging winds, and a couple of tornadoes.

This tornado touched down 2.5 miles southwest of Hickman near the Stagecoach Lake State Recreation area. It then moved through the Wagon Train Lake State Recreation area where it strengthened to EF2 intensity. It continued to track to the northeast, moving about 1 miles south of Bennet before ending 1 mile northwest of Palmyra. The strength of this tornado was rated EF2 based on the property damage near the Wagon Train Lake State Recreation and based on property damage just west of Palmyra. The intensity was EF1 south of Bennet. Otherwise the tornado strength was rated EF0 along the remainder of the track. The entire track of this tornado was 16.5 miles.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:16 UTC and running to 06:36 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 00:54 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 Omaha radar (KOAX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:08 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

2 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.