EF0 tornado, Fairfield, Nebraska, May 9, 2016

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

May 9, 2016

Touchdown

5:06 PM CDT (22:06 UTC)

Lifted

5:14 PM CDT (22:14 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.3 km)

Path width

35 yards (32 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$75,000

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

40.428, -98.063

Lift-off point

40.443, -98.016

Record number

1605091606-01

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Roof Damage on building under construction
• Several small trees damaged

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

Two tornadoes occurred along with hail up to the size of golf balls on this Monday afternoon. A few very isolated general thunderstorms developed across south central Nebraska beginning around 1:30 p.m. CST. However, storms did not become severe until after 3 p.m. CST. Severe hail up to the size of golf balls occurred with some storms, which was impressive given the weak shear and pulse-type nature of the storms. A non-supercell tornado occurred near Odessa, in Buffalo County. Somehow, a lone supercell managed to develop over Clay County, and it was responsible for producing a tornado and hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter. Both of these tornadoes were rated EF-0. By 7 p.m. CST, all of the thunderstorm activity had dissipated or moved out of south central Nebraska.||Surface low pressure was quasi-stationary over western Kansas. The warm front extending east from the low lifted into central Nebraska and became stationary. Just prior to most of the thunderstorm development, temperatures were in the lower to middle 70s with dewpoints in the middle to upper 50s. With mid-level lapse rates near 8 degrees C/km, this resulted in MLCAPE of 1500-2000 J/kg. Effective deep layer shear was 15-20 knots, barely supportive of multicell storm mode. In the upper levels, a longwave trough was over the western U.S. with a lead low exiting Nebraska into South Dakota, and a new more potent low dropping into the backside of the trough over the Northern Rockies.

This tornado touched down approximately 2 miles east of Fairfield, traveling east-northeast before lifting approximately 5 miles east of Fairfield. Damage along this path included at least one irrigation pivot as well as minor damage to the front walkway overhang at the school. Windows were blown out of numerous vehicles in the school parking lot, and a concession area under construction suffered minor damage. The tornado crossed Highway 14, damaging fencing and trees before lifting a couple miles east of the highway. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 85 MPH.

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

3 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:03 UTC, 3 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 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 Marginal 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 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:09 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 2016 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

27 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.