Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2018

EF0 tornado, (Ibm)Kimball Arpt to Kimball, Nebraska, July 28, 2018

From (Ibm)Kimball Arpt to Kimball, this EF0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Kimball County on July 28, 2018, touching down at 5:40 PM MDT and reaching 75 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 28, 2018
Touchdown
5:40 PM MDT (23:40 UTC)
Lifted
5:42 PM MDT (23:42 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kimball County
Touchdown point
41.197, -103.650
Lift-off point
41.205, -103.668
Record number
1807281740-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Thunderstorms produced large hail, very heavy rainfall and a weak tornado across Kimball County.

A EF0 tornado briefly touched down three miles west of Kimball and moved southeast for a few minutes before lifting. A truck driver reported that the funnel he was watching became rain-wrapped before it spun his vehicle 45 degrees.

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

The warnings

6 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:34 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:40 UTC and running to 04:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:40 UTC04:00 UTCTornado WatchCYS
22:29 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
23:13 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
23:34 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningCYS
23:53 UTC04:00 UTCFlash Flood WarningCYS
00:01 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
01:05 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS

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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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

11.7 hours before the tornado, 152 km from the path. July 28, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 12:00Z on 2018-07-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 281 joules per kilogram, CIN -374, lifted condensation level 928 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 2018-07-28The 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 22 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 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
281 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-374 J/kg
Surface CAPE
733 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
928 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
22 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Denver, CO (KDEN), 00:00Z

0.3 hours after it, 152 km from the path. July 29, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Denver, CO at 00:00Z on 2018-07-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 863 joules per kilogram, CIN -114, lifted condensation level 1825 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 2018-07-29The 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 167 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 49 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
863 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-114 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2354 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1825 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
49 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
167 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
331 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
7.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 96 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:41 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
23:30 UTCHAIL 0.5KimballKimball, NE
23:40 UTCTORNADO3 Sw KimballKimball, NEDEPUTY REPORTED THAT HE WAS WATCHING SOME ROTATION JUST TO THE SOUTHWEST OF KIMBALL WHEN IT BECAME RAIN WRAPPED AND HE LOST SIGHT OF IT. VERY HEAVY RAIN AND WIND HIT THE TRUCK AND IT WAS SPUN 45 DEGREES. CORRECTED FOR LO
23:40 UTCTORNADO3 W KimballKimball, NEDEPUTY REPORTED THAT HE WAS WATCHING SOME ROTATION JUST TO THE WEST OF KIMBAL WHEN IT BECAME RAIN WRAPPED AND HE LOST SIGHT OF IT. VERY HEAVY RAIN AND WIND HIT THE TRUCK AND IT WAS SPUN 45 DEGREES.
23:42 UTCHAIL 2.75KimballKimball, NEREPORTED AT THE LANDFILL
00:00 UTCFLASH FLOODKimballKimball, NESTREETS FLOODED IN KIMBALL FROM HEAVY RAIN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 28, 2018

4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 283:50 PM MDTEF3Converse, WY4.4350
July 284:20 PM MDTEF1Converse, WY1.8150
July 284:27 PM MDTUnratedPlatte, WY3.450
July 287:01 PM MDTEF0Logan, CO0.050

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.