Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2016

EF0 tornado, Dalton to Redington, Nebraska, July 29, 2016

From Dalton to Redington, this EF0 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Morrill County on July 29, 2016, touching down at 5:22 PM MDT and reaching 30 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
July 29, 2016
Touchdown
5:22 PM MDT (23:22 UTC)
Lifted
5:27 PM MDT (23:27 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
1.3 miles (2.1 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Morrill County
Touchdown point
41.500, -103.270
Lift-off point
41.486, -103.253
Record number
1607291722-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms across portions of the Nebraska panhandle produced large hail, damaging winds and a weak tornado.

A weak tornado touched down in open country about 17 miles west-northwest of Dalton. It moved southeast and was in contact with the ground for five minutes before it lifted.

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

The warnings

13 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:09 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 21:31 UTC and running to 02:16 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:42 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
21:24 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
21:31 UTC02:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCYS
22:28 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
23:08 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
23:09 UTC23:45 UTCTornado WarningCYS
23:42 UTC23:57 UTCTornado WarningCYS
00:15 UTC02:17 UTCFlood AdvisoryCYS

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 Marginal Risk. 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 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.

Denver, CO (KDEN), 12:00Z

11.4 hours before the tornado, 180 km from the path. July 29, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2016-07-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 816 joules per kilogram, CIN -137, lifted condensation level 866 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, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2016-07-29The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 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
816 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-137 J/kg
Surface CAPE
704 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
866 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
165 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

0.6 hours after it, 180 km from the path. July 30, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2016-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 305 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 2718 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, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2016-07-30The 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 34 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 41 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
305 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
166 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2718 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
41 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
160 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:22 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
21:23 UTCHAIL 0.8812 Wnw HarrisburgBanner, NEVERY HEAVY RAIN. PEA SIZED TO NICKEL SIZE.
22:42 UTCTSTM WND DMG5 E RedingtonMorrill, NEPOWER POLE SNAPPED.
23:02 UTCHAIL 0.752 Se ScottsbluffScotts Bluff, NE
23:22 UTCTORNADO17 Wnw DaltonMorrill, NEON THE GROUND FOR 5 MINUTES BEFORE LIFTING.
23:46 UTCHAIL 1.257 Wsw DaltonCheyenne, NE
00:35 UTCHAIL 1.252 N SidneyCheyenne, NE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 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.