Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2018

EF0 tornado, Pilger, Nebraska, June 18, 2018

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Stanton County on June 18, 2018, touching down at 5:38 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
June 18, 2018
Touchdown
5:38 PM CDT (22:38 UTC)
Lifted
5:39 PM CDT (22:39 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Stanton County
Touchdown point
41.930, -97.100
Lift-off point
41.930, -97.098
Record number
1806181638-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak upper-level disturbance advanced from the central High Plains into mid Missouri Valley, supporting the development of a surface low over central Nebraska during the afternoon. Severe thunderstorms developed by mid afternoon ahead of the surface low across eastern Nebraska with activity spreading east into western Iowa by evening. The storms produced damaging straight-line winds with a gust to 76 mph observed near Pilger in Stanton County. A few brief tornadoes were also reported in Stanton, Burt, and Mills Counties.

Damage to top of tree limbs. Large limbs blown across the highway 6 miles south southwest of Pilger.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:31 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:05 UTC and running to 02:25 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:05 UTC02:25 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchOAX
22:05 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
22:26 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
22:31 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningOAX
22:44 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
00:00 UTC09:06 UTCFlash Flood WatchOAX

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:41 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), 12:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 91 km from the path. June 18, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2018-06-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 301 joules per kilogram, CIN -106, lifted condensation level 1177 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 12:00Z on 2018-06-18The 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 84 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939Sfc1 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
301 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-106 J/kg
Surface CAPE
504 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1177 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
66 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 91 km from the path. June 19, 2018.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2018-06-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 992 joules per kilogram, CIN -119, lifted condensation level 896 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 2018-06-19The 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 301 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
992 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-119 J/kg
Surface CAPE
353 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
896 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
301 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
336 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
7.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 91 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:36 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
22:35 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD5 Sse StantonStanton, NEFUNNEL PERSISTED FOR SEVERAL MINUTES.
22:38 UTCTORNADO6 Ssw PilgerStanton, NETREE TOP DAMAGE. LARGE LIMBS DOWN ACROSS HIGHWAY. TRASH BLOWN AROUND.
22:42 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw PilgerStanton, NETREE TOP DAMAGE. 10 LIMBS BLOWN DOWN. SHINGLES BLOWN OFF ROOF.
23:05 UTCTSTM WND GST 765 S PilgerStanton, NE
23:21 UTCTSTM WND GST 705 N BeemerCuming, NE
23:30 UTCTSTM WND GST 704 W BancroftCuming, NE
23:40 UTCTORNADO1 Nw LyonsBurt, NESMALL TORNADO OCCURRED UNDER RAPIDLY ROTATING WALL CLOUD. DAMAGE TO A SMALL SHED WAS REPORTED.

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 June 18, 2018

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 183:03 PM EDTEF0Grafton, NH9.425
June 183:32 PM EDTEF0Grafton, NH0.220
June 182:57 PM CDTEF0Lincoln, MS0.725$75,000
June 185:00 PM CDTEF0Mills, IA0.350
June 186:40 PM CDTEF0Burt, NE0.350

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.