Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2015

EF0 tornado, Merriman, Nebraska, May 24, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cherry County on May 24, 2015, touching down at 4:45 PM MDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
May 24, 2015
Touchdown
4:45 PM MDT (22:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cherry County
Touchdown point
42.920, -101.996
Lift-off point
42.920, -101.996
Record number
1505241645-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms developed across western and southwest Nebraska. Several reports of tornadoes and funnels across Cherry County.

At 1645MDT, landspout tornado briefly touched down in open rangeland and dissipated. No damage was reported. Two landspout tornadoes were reported simultaneously.

At 1645MDT, landspout tornado briefly touched down in open rangeland and dissipated. No damage was reported. Two landspout tornadoes were reported simultaneously with position estimated.

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

The warnings

18 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:27 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:27 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningLBF
23:00 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningLBF

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. 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 air that afternoon

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.

Rapid City, SD (KRAP), 12:00Z

10.8 hours before the tornado, 146 km from the path. May 24, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2015-05-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -93603, lifted condensation level 500 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Rapid City, SD at 12:00Z on 2015-05-24The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 29 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-93603 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
500 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
29 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
57 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KRAP), 00:00Z

1.2 hours after it, 146 km from the path. May 25, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2015-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 104 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 624 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Rapid City, SD at 00:00Z on 2015-05-25The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 52 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
104 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
418 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
624 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
52 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
68 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 150 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:46 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.

What was reported nearby

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
22:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD15 W MerrimanCherry, NE
22:28 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD15 W MerrimanCherry, NEINTERMITTENT FUNNEL
22:30 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD15 W MerrimanCherry, NEROPE FUNNEL CLOUD ABOUT HALF WAY TO THE GROUND
22:45 UTCTORNADO10 E GordonCherry, NETWO TORNADOES WERE OCCURRING AT THE SAME TIME BUT HAVE LIFTED AND DISSIPATED.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2015 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 24, 2015

17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 241:27 AM CDTEF1Nueces, TX2.6100$750,000
May 242:34 AM CDTEF1Dallas, TX1.180$600,000
May 242:34 AM CDTEF1Dallas, TX4.940$100,000
May 246:33 AM CDTEF0Harris, TX0.5504$200,000
May 2411:34 AM CDTEF1Harrison, TX1.9128$75,000
May 2412:15 PM CDTEF1St. Clair, MO5.0200$400,000
May 245:42 PM CDTEF1Lee, IA0.125$10,000
May 244:45 PM MDTEF0Cherry, NE0.120
May 245:59 PM CDTEF1Ozark, MO4.7200$75,000
May 246:50 PM CDTEF2Mercer, IL6.850$30,000
May 249:37 PM CDTEF1Seward, KS10.91,200$1.0 million
May 249:47 PM CDTEF0Seward, KS0.7150
May 2410:06 PM CDTEF0Meade, KS2.4100
May 2410:20 PM CDTEF0Meade, KS3.1100
May 2410:47 PM CDTEF1Meade, KS13.2800
May 2411:26 PM CDTEF2Meade, KS14.6250
May 2412:20 AM CDTEF1Ford, KS6.475

What this means

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.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.