Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2015

EF0 tornado, David City Arpt, Nebraska, September 23, 2015

This EF0 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Butler County on September 23, 2015, touching down at 5:44 PM CDT and reaching 50 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
September 23, 2015
Touchdown
5:44 PM CDT (22:44 UTC)
Lifted
5:46 PM CDT (22:46 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.5 miles (2.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Butler County
Touchdown point
41.210, -97.107
Lift-off point
41.232, -97.103
Record number
1509231644-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An area of upper level low pressure slowly moved across the central Plains during the September 22nd through the 23rd time frame. Significant moisture was in place across the mid Missouri River Valley ahead of this system. This combination led to scattered to numerous thunderstorms over eastern Nebraska and western Iowa starting on the 22nd and continuing into the day on the 23rd. The heavy persistent thunderstorms, especially late in the night and into the early morning hours on the 23rd led to significant flash flooding across parts of western Iowa, specifically in Council Bluffs.

Video obtained from Twitter showed a brief tornado touchdown in rural Butler County. A survey from the local emergency management indicated no damage from the tornado.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

1.3 hours after it, 62 km from the path. September 24, 2015.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2015-09-24Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 383 joules per kilogram, CIN -47, lifted condensation level 772 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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2015-09-24The 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 124 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
383 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-47 J/kg
Surface CAPE
415 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
772 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
206 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Columbus Municipal (OLU), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:55 UTC69.862.690° 6 kt1017.9
21:15 UTC69.862.690° 6 kt1017.9
21:35 UTC69.862.6100° 9 kt1017.9
21:55 UTC69.862.6120° 7 kt1017.3
22:15 UTC69.862.6100° 8 kt1017.3
22:35 UTC69.862.6100° 7 kt1017.3
22:55 UTC69.862.6100° 6 kt1017.3
23:15 UTC69.862.6120° 7 kt1017.3
23:35 UTC69.862.6130° 6 kt1017.6
23:55 UTC66.260.8110° 6 kt1017.6
00:15 UTC66.260.8110° 6 kt1017.3
00:35 UTC66.260.890° 6 kt1017.3

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

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 63 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:45 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
22:50 UTCTSTM WND GST 50David CityButler, NEOUTFLOW WINDS ESTIMATED AT UP TO 50 MPH. NO DAMAGE.

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

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.