EF0 tornado, Merriman to Merritt Res, Nebraska, June 17, 2014

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

June 17, 2014

Touchdown

5:28 PM MDT (23:28 UTC)

Lifted

5:32 PM MDT (23:32 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

0.7 miles (1.2 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

County

Cherry County

Touchdown point

42.512, -101.709

Lift-off point

42.504, -101.700

Record number

1406171728-01

4 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 80 mph.

• Stock trailer and semi blown off road
• Appx 37 SW Cody. Matched w/radar.

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

Severe thunderstorms produced six tornadoes and hail up to grapefruit size on June 17th. The tornadoes occurred in open rangeland, although a semi and car were impacted on Highway 61 near Mile Marker 194. All tornadoes were rated EF-0.

At 1728MST, a tornado briefly touched down near Mile Marker 194 on Highway 61. A semi truck and trailer was overturned and a car was blown off the road. Peak winds were estimated at 80 mph and the tornado rated and EF-0. Maximum path width was 40 yards.

At 1800CST, a tornado touched down 34 miles west southwest of Merritt Reservoir, or 25 miles north of Whitman to the southeast of Round Lake. The tornado was intermittently on the ground that moved southeast about three quarters of a mile before dissipating at 1810CST. The tornado damaged tree tops with some large trees uprooted southeast of Round Lake. Peak winds were estimated at 75 mph with the tornado rated EF-0. Maximum path width was 40 yards.

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 21:56 UTC and running to 03:43 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 General Thunderstorms Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:44 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), 111 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:26 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 2014 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

19 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.