EF2 tornado, Bayard to Bonner, Nebraska, June 12, 2017

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado

   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

EF2

Date

June 12, 2017

Touchdown

7:19 PM MDT (01:19 UTC)

Lifted

8:25 PM MDT (02:25 UTC)

On the ground

66 minutes

Path length

31.6 miles (50.9 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3.5 million

Counties

Morrill and Box Butte counties

Touchdown point

41.822, -103.341

Lift-off point

42.063, -102.817

Record number

1706121919-01

18 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CYS and NWS LBF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 116 mph.

• Most of the roofing materials were off the home. All walls still intacted.
• Double wide with attached to the foundation with a basement. Front of the home exterior walls collapsed and roof was torn off. Detached garage next to the home was completely destroyed.
• Garage behind nursing home, almost completely destroyed except an interior wall. Roof of the nursing home was destroyed and displaced
• Almost all walls are collapsed. Undercarriage still in the original location.

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

One of the most significant severe weather episodes to affect the western Nebraska Panhandle occurred during in the early evening of Monday 12 June 2017. Several tornadoes, hail to baseball size, and damaging winds were observed. Supercell thunderstorms developed during the afternoon along Interstate 25 between Fort Collins, CO and Wheatland. Lifting northeast, these thunderstorms spread into the western Nebraska Panhandle during the early evening.

A brief tornado touched down on the east side of Bayard, NE producing damage consistent of EF-1 (DI 17, DOD 3) to the Chimney Rock Villa Nursing Home. The tornado lifted quickly as it moved east of Bayard. Many irrigation pivots overturned within 1-2 miles west of Bayard, as well as damage on the west side of town consistent with damaging straight-line winds.

A long-track discontinuous tornado path was surveyed by the NWS damage team, initially touching down northwest of the Highway 26 and L62A intersection, 4 miles north-northwest of Bayard, NE. The tornado continued east along and north of L62A. Significant damage consistent of EF-2 tornadic damage was surveyed at a farmhouse approximately 6 miles northeast of Bayard. The house was severely damaged with the roof taken off and numerous exterior walls destroyed (DI 4, DOD 8). A detached garage was swept clean (DI 1, DOD 8) with several trucks slid from their original location. A flat bed and horse trailer were lofted 100 yards from their original position. Trees to the west of the residence were denuded. This storm produced additional damage some of which was due to straight-line winds along L62A. This damage included damage to a steel farm outbuilding, rolled mobile home, rolled semi tractor trailer, rolled center pivots, and continued tree denuding. The storm lifted northeast near Highway 385 with additional damage surveyed at Angora, including downed power poles and a train derailment. The discontinuous tornado continued northeast exiting Morrill County near Highway 385 by 1904 MST. This storm continued and produced additional damage in Box Butte County.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:57 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 23:12 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:03 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 Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 168 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:19 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 2017 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

20 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.