EF1 tornado, Elberon to Paul, Nebraska, September 9, 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

September 9, 2014

Touchdown

4:29 PM CDT (21:29 UTC)

Lifted

4:51 PM CDT (21:51 UTC)

On the ground

22 minutes

Path length

7.7 miles (12.4 km)

Path width

965 yards (882 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

Crop damage

$100,000

County

Otoe County

Touchdown point

40.624, -95.988

Lift-off point

40.595, -95.841

Record number

1409091529-01

52 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 108 mph.

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

A surface warm front extending west to east across northern Kansas the afternoon of September 9th slowly moved north into southeastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa. Surface based storms developed along and just north of this front, and quickly became supercellular. One HP supercell developed over Otoe county produced an EF1 tornado. Elevated storms formed during the afternoon well north of the surface boundary on the leading edge of an 850 mb front. This was ahead of a strong shortwave moving into the central plains. A moisture rich environment led to very heavy rain with several reports of flash flooding.

The tornado developed from a slow moving supercell across rural Otoe County. The tornado initially developed near County Road 50, and between County Road M and L. Initial damage was mainly to crops and snapped tree limbs. The slow-moving tornado traveled generally east southeast exhibiting a slightly erratic path through rural Otoe County. The tornado impacted a couple of farmsteads along County Road 56, and also along County Road M. At these locations outbuildings were damaged or destroyed, as well as considerable tree damage. The tornado cross U.S. Highway 75 at the intersection of Nebraska Highway 128 where tree and power line damage occurred. The tornado continued east along Highway 128 continuing to do tree and crop damage for 1 mile before dissipating.

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 20:34 UTC and running to 01:28 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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:53 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.

Nebraska City (AFK), 4 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 88 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:36 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

6 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.