EF1 tornado, Beaver Crossing Arpt, Nebraska, May 11, 2014

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

May 11, 2014

Touchdown

5:58 PM CDT (22:58 UTC)

Lifted

6:10 PM CDT (23:10 UTC)

On the ground

12 minutes

Path length

5.5 miles (8.9 km)

Path width

700 yards (640 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$60,000

Counties

York and Seward counties

Touchdown point

40.741, -97.381

Lift-off point

40.776, -97.328

Record number

1405111658-01

246 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS ABR and NWS GID and NWS OAX and NWS OAXx, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 152 mph.

• roof of structure appears damaged. can't access. se edge Cwa.
• east side of road 25 in Oma Cwa.
• very large power lines across road. at least 4 towers snapped 100 yards apart.
• partial loss of roof and feed bin toppled. several trees snapped. garage door facing west on outbuilding may have failed.

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

One long-tracked supercell thunderstorm, and several other shorter-lived storms spawned tornadoes across eastern Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening hours of May 11th. The storms developed near the intersection of a warm front and dry-line/cold front in south central Nebraska then tracked northeast along the warm front toward the Lincoln and Omaha areas. Conditions in the area were very unstable with temperatures in the 80s to around 90 south of the warm front with dew point temperatures in the 60s. In total 12 tornadoes were recorded in the Omaha/Valley warning area with several others in the Hastings forecast area. The storms also produced very heavy rainfall which caused some flooding, mostly north through west and southwest of Lincoln.

Multiple thunderstorms formed along and southeast of a line from Red Cloud to York on this Sunday afternoon. However, most of the severe weather was produced by a single supercell. This was the first and most intense storm of the day and it formed over Webster county around 2:30 p.m. CDT. This storm took full advantage of an extremely favorable environment, quickly becoming severe and producing at least one brief, weak tornado just southwest of Glenvil. The storm continued northeast producing several more tornadoes, two of which resulted in a maximum damage rating of EF-3. One of these tornadoes occurred over Clay and Fillmore counties and the other subsequently occurred over Fillmore and Seward counties. The first of these EF-3 tornadoes was on the ground for nearly 22 miles. Damage surveys, photos and video confirmed that this storm produced at least 6 other tornadoes, 3 rated EF-0, 2 rated EF-1 and 1 rated EF-2. One of the EF-1 tornadoes was anticyclonic and touched down just north of Fairmont. To the left of these tornadoes, severe hail was common. The largest hail observed was the size of tennis balls in Glenvil. Large swaths of damaging winds, from the rear flank downdraft, accompanied the tornadoes to their south and southeast. Tornado and wind damage was extensive to trees, power poles, farm buildings including grain bins, and a few homes. Over 200 irrigation pivots were overturned and/or twisted. Multiple farmsteads also endured damage, including the loss of a new machine shed. By 5:30 p.m., this storm had moved into eastern Nebraska. Other storms developed in its wake, but produced no severe weather. ||A very long surface front extended from New England, through the Ohio Valley, across the Central Plains and into the Desert Southwest. Portions of this front were stationary while others were being modulated by several waves of low pressure. The front lifted northward to the Kansas-Nebraska border by daybreak. One low ejected out of Colorado and moved east along the front through northern Kansas during the day. This supercell formed just northeast of this low on the immediate cool side of the front. The upper-level flow featured an amplified western trough and eastern ridge. A closed low was at the base of the trough over the Four Corners region. These storms initiated with the aid of a shortwave trough that ejected into the Central Plains ahead of this low. A strong 100 knot jet streak was at the base of the trough at 300 mb, placing the Central Plains in the favorable left front quadrant. An expansive stratus cloud deck, on the cool side of the front, resulted in a substantial temperature gradient across the front, with afternoon temperatures in the 40s and 50s across much of Nebraska to the mid 80s and low 90s over northern Kansas. This resulted in a tight instability gradient with MLCAPE of 2000 J/kg right along the front. Winds were strong throughout the column. The ejecting low pressure center, combined with the front, resulted in significantly backed winds, enhancing low-level shear. 0-1 km SRH was roughly 300 m2/s2, with 0-3 km SRH 400-600 m2/s2. The environment was very favorable for severe storms and tornadoes.

This was a satellite tornado of the larger Beaver Crossing tornado. This tornado was filmed by storm chasers in the area. The tornado was responsible for minor tree damage to the northwest of the city of Beaver Crossing.

This tornado developed rapidly after the Beaver Crossing tornado as the supercell continued to move northeast. The tornado quickly strengthened to EF2 and completed destroyed several large outbuildings as it crossed Pioneers and Van Dorn Roads. The tornado turned more northeast as it crossed A street downing power lines and snapping trees. The tornado crossed Interstate 80 about a half mile west of the of the Highway 15 interchange where a semi tractor trailer was overturned. The tornado weakened and turned east as it moved north of the Interstate and produced mainly minor tree and power line damage.

This tornado started just under one mile inside York County and quickly strengthened, destroying a grain bin and power poles on the York and Seward County line. This tornado was only in York County for a short time, with most of its damage occurring in Seward County. Damage along the path of the tornado in York County included overturned irrigation pivots, broken power poles, and the destruction of grain bins. The peak wind with this tornado was estimated to be 90 MPH.

This tornado crossed into Seward county from York county and was from a trailing supercell thunderstorm that followed the storm that produced an EF3 tornado just to the south a little earlier. This tornado was responsible snapping several power poles as it entered into Seward County along 476th street. The tornado continued northeast producing occasional tree damage, tipping over center pivot irrigation equipment, and outbuilding damage.

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 19:22 UTC and running to 02:49 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 19:59 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), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:56 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

35 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.