Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2019

EF3 tornado, Stockville, Nebraska, May 17, 2019

Name: EF3 tornado, Stockville, Nebraska, May 17, 2019
Start: 2019-05-18T00:05:00.000Z
End: 2019-05-18T00:09:00.000Z
Location: Stockville, Nebraska

This EF3 tornado ran 2.1 miles across Frontier County on May 17, 2019, touching down at 7:05 PM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 of property damage.

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.

EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
EF3136 to 165 mphthis tornado
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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: EF3
Date: May 17, 2019
Touchdown: 7:05 PM CDT (00:05 UTC)
Lifted: 7:09 PM CDT (00:09 UTC)
On the ground: 4 minutes
Path length: 2.1 miles (3.4 km)
Path width: 400 yards (366 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $100,000
County: Frontier County
Touchdown point: 40.612, -100.272
Lift-off point: 40.632, -100.245
Record number: 1905171805-01

The damage survey

30 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID and NWS LBF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 157 mph.

Uprooted tree on county line
Winds damaged. Shingle loss. Small outbuilding destroyed.
Slider garage. Moved about 3-4 feet.
Some roof panel loss on outbuilding. Small old grain bin damages

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

What the Weather Service recorded

A strong upper level trough of low pressure lifted across the central Rockies during the late afternoon of May 17th. As this feature approached a stalled out frontal boundary, which was anchored along the Kansas and Nebraska border, thunderstorms developed and quickly became severe as they lifted north. A lone supercell produced multiple tornadoes while moving northeast through Frontier County. Two farms sustained damage with the Johnson's farm sustaining damage to every building with the tornado rated an EF-3. As storms moved northeast large hail and damaging winds were reported.

Tornado rolled numerous hay bales across a road and into ditches. Twelve power poles were also snapped.

The tornado touched down 8 miles northeast of Stockville. It traveled northeast striking a farmstead 10 miles northeast of Stockville. Two buildings were destroyed with extensive damage to multiple structures at this farmstead.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS LBF issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:41 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:01 UTC and running to 03:46 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
20:01 UTC	03:46 UTC	Tornado Watch	LBF
23:03 UTC	23:45 UTC	Tornado Warning	LBF
23:07 UTC	00:00 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF
23:41 UTC	00:30 UTC	Tornado Warning	LBF
00:04 UTC	00:45 UTC	Tornado Warning	LBF

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 0.10 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.1 hours before the tornado, 63 km from the path. May 18, 2019.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

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: 1428 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -18 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 1823 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1396 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 190 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 288 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.7
Supercell composite: 7.1
0-3 km lapse rate: 7.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

11.9 hours after it, 63 km from the path. May 18, 2019.

Skew-T log-p

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.

Hodograph

Mixed-layer CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -91105 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1111 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 52 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: -169 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: -41 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.0
0-3 km lapse rate: 3.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lexington (LXN), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
22:15 UTC	77	66.4	150° 21 kt	26	997.6
22:35 UTC	76.8	65.5	150° 21 kt	27	998	VCTS
22:55 UTC	76	65	150° 17 kt	23	998
23:15 UTC	75.7	64.8	150° 17 kt	23	997.6
23:35 UTC	75.6	64.6	140° 14 kt	21	997
23:55 UTC	75.2	64	140° 18 kt	25	997
00:15 UTC	75.2	63.7	140° 16 kt	23	997
00:35 UTC	74.7	63.5	140° 14 kt	22	997	-RA
00:55 UTC	74.7	63.5	140° 18 kt	25	995.9
01:15 UTC	74.7	63	150° 21 kt	29	996.3
01:35 UTC	74.3	63	150° 23 kt	31	996.3
01:55 UTC	73	63.3	160° 26 kt	36	995.9	-RA

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 151 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:04 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)	Report	Where	County	Remark
22:55 UTC	TORNADO	6 Ene Culbertson	Red Willow, NE	STORM CHASER REPORTED PIVOTS KNOCKED OVER, TREE DAMAGE, POWER LINES DOWN, AND MINOR DAMAGE TO FARM.
23:00 UTC	HAIL 1.5	7 Nnw Mccook	Red Willow, NE	TRAINED SPOTTER REPORTED HAIL UP TO 1 TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER ALONG US HWY 83 NORTH OF MCCOOK, NE. TIME ESTIMATED VIA RADAR.
23:00 UTC	TORNADO	10 N Mccook	Red Willow, NE	PUBLIC REPORTED VIA FACEBOOK WITH A PICTURE A TORNADO ABOUT 10 MILES N OF MCCOOK, NE.
23:00 UTC	TORNADO	6 Nw Mccook	Red Willow, NE	OFF DUTY NWS EMPLOYEE CONFIRMS TORNADO ON THE GROUND NORTHWEST OF MCCOOK.
23:00 UTC	TORNADO	6 Wnw Mccook	Red Willow, NE	NWS EMPLOYEE REPORTED VIA TWITTER A TORNADO APPROXIMATELY 6 MILES EAST OF CULBERTSON, NE. IT WAS A WEAK ROPE TORNADO THAT DID NOT LAST LONG. REPORT INCLUDED SEVERAL PICTURES CONFIRMING THE TORNADO.
23:00 UTC	TORNADO	8 N Indianola	Red Willow, NE	PUBLIC REPORTED VIA FACEBOOK WITH A PICTURE A TORNADO APPROXIMATELY 8 MILES NORTH OF INDIANOLA, NE LOOKING WEST.
23:01 UTC	TORNADO	7 Ene Culbertson	Red Willow, NE	CORRECTS PREVIOUS REPORT STATING MULTIPLE REPORTS FROM STORM CHASERS VIA TWITTER WITH PICTURE OF A TORNADO ROUGHLY 2 MILES SOUTH OF CULBERTSON, NE LOOKING WEST FROM HWY 17. LOCATION OF TORNADO HAS BEEN ADJUSTED TO REFLEC
23:02 UTC	TORNADO	6 Nw Mccook	Red Willow, NE	TORNADO ON THE GROUND NORTHWEST OF MCCOOK.
23:32 UTC	TORNADO	6 Sw Stockville	Frontier, NE	DELAYED REPORT. BRIEF TOUCHDOWN NO DAMAGE. PHOTO AND VIDEO CAPTURE TIME AND POSITION VERIFIED WITH RADAR LOCATION.
23:43 UTC	HAIL 2.75	Nnw Stockville	Frontier, NE	REPORT VIA MPING. TIME BASED ON RADAR.
23:55 UTC	TORNADO	3 Ne Stockville	Frontier, NE	DELAYED REPORT FROM MAY 17TH, REPORT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA WITH PICTURE. THEY WERE LOCATED AT 7 MILES EAST OF STOCKVILLE ON HWY 18 LOOKING WNW JUST NORTH OF STOCKVILLE, ESTIMATED 3 MILES NORTHEAST OF STOCKVILLE.
23:56 UTC	TORNADO	Nw Stockville	Frontier, NE	DELAYED REPORT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN A HALF MILE NORTHWEST OF STOCKVILLE AT 2356Z AND MOVED NORTHEAST ACROSS HARVESTED FARM GROUND BEFORE DISSIPATING AT 2358Z. NO DAMAGE OCCURRED WITH THE TORNADO RATED AS AN EF-0 WITH W
23:58 UTC	TORNADO	5 Ne Stockville	Frontier, NE	BRIEF ROPE TORNADO ONE THE GROUND FOR A SHORT TIME
00:09 UTC	TORNADO	10 Ne Stockville	Frontier, NE	TORNADO ON THE GROUND VIA LIVE STREAM
00:14 UTC	HAIL 2.5	1 Ne Moorefield	Lincoln, NE	DELAYED REPORT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA PICTURE
00:18 UTC	TORNADO	2 Ne Farnam	Dawson, NE	SPOTTER NETWORK REPORT OF LIKELY TORNADO DAMAGE.
00:26 UTC	TORNADO	2 Ne Farnam	Dawson, NE	BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHDOWN. JUST NORTHEAST OF FARNAM. EXACT LOCATION UNCERTAIN.
00:33 UTC	TORNADO	8 Ene Farnam	Dawson, NE	CONE TORNADO.
00:35 UTC	TORNADO	1 E Farnam	Dawson, NE	TORNADO DAMAGE REPORTED TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN.
00:37 UTC	TORNADO	1 Ne Farnam	Dawson, NE	TORNADO DAMAGE REPORTED TRESS AND POWER LINES DOWN IN THE ROAD, LAW ENFORCEMENT HAS ROAD BLOCKED EAST AND WEST BOUND.
00:40 UTC	HAIL 2.5	1 E Farnam	Dawson, NE	CORRECTS PREVIOUS HAIL REPORT FROM 1 E FARNAM. HAIL OCCURRED W OF FARNAM. SEE LSR FROM NWS NORTH PLATTE.
00:40 UTC	HAIL 2.5	1 E Farnam	Dawson, NE	DELAYED REPORT VIA SOCIAL MEDIA. HAIL WAS SLIGHTLY MELTED AT THE TIME OF THE REPORT.
00:40 UTC	HAIL 2.5	8 Ene Moorefield	Lincoln, NE	LOCATION OF THE REPORT WAS LATITUDE 40.700 AND LONGITUDE -100.261 OR ABOUT 8 MILES EAST NORTHEAST OF MOOREFIELD.
00:40 UTC	HAIL 2.5	8 Ene Moorefield	Lincoln, NE	STORM CHASER REPORTS TENNIS BALL SIZE HAIL AT LATITUDE 40.700 AND LONGITUDE -100.261 OR APPROXIMATELY 8 MILES EAST NORTHEAST OF MOOREFIELD.
00:40 UTC	HAIL 2.5	8 Ene Moorefield	Lincoln, NE
00:41 UTC	HAIL 2.75	Nnw Stockville	Frontier, NE	REPORT VIA MPING
00:52 UTC	HAIL 1	2 Nne Cozad	Dawson, NE	REPORTED AT 421 AND NEWELL.
00:54 UTC	TORNADO	1 N Cozad	Dawson, NE	LARGE TORNADO JUST NORTH OF COZAD.
00:55 UTC	HAIL 1.75	3 Sw Willow Island	Dawson, NE	FROM 7:55 TO 8:05 PM.
00:55 UTC	HAIL 1.75	6 Sw Willow Island	Dawson, NE	SPOTTER NETWORK REPORT.
00:55 UTC	TORNADO	2 Nne Cozad	Dawson, NE	WAS ON THE PHONE WITH LAW ENFORCEMENT FOR HAIL, WHEN THEY GOT A REPORT OVER THE RADIO OF A TORNADO TOUCHING DOWN.
00:59 UTC	HAIL 1	Gothenburg	Dawson, NE
01:06 UTC	TORNADO	2 E Cozad	Dawson, NE	TORNADO ON GROUND KICKING UP LOTS OF DUST AND DEBRIS.
01:09 UTC	TORNADO	8 Ne Cozad	Dawson, NE	TORNADO DAMAGE REPORTED AT THIS LOCATION.
01:13 UTC	HAIL 2	Farnam	Dawson, NE	PICTURE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA.
01:21 UTC	TORNADO	8 W Eddyville	Dawson, NE	SPOTTER NETWORK REPORT OF RAIN WRAPPED TORNADO. LOCATION IS APPROXIMATE.
01:23 UTC	TSTM WND DMG	7 W Eddyville	Dawson, NE	TREE DAMAGE. LIKELY TORNADO DAMAGE.
01:35 UTC	TORNADO	2 E Cozad	Dawson, NE	DAMAGE REPORTED TO PIVOT, FLAG POLE, TREES, AND POWER POLES NEAR THE COZAD CEMETERY.
02:30 UTC	HAIL 1	Brady	Lincoln, NE
02:49 UTC	HAIL 1	4 Ese Brady	Lincoln, NE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2019 tornado in Nebraska Every tornado in Nebraska since 1950 Warnings in force in Nebraska now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 17, 2019

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 17	4:43 PM CDT	EF0	Pecos, TX	2.4	100
May 17	5:40 PM CDT	Unrated	Hitchcock, NE	0.3	75
May 17	5:55 PM CDT	EF2	Red Willow, NE	6.0	350
May 17	6:10 PM CDT	EF0	Red Willow, NE	3.0	100
May 17	6:32 PM CDT	EF0	Frontier, NE	0.1	20
May 17	6:45 PM CDT	EF0	Frontier, NE	0.1	50
May 17	6:55 PM CDT	EF0	Frontier, NE	0.5	315	$1,000
May 17	6:58 PM CDT	EF2	Frontier, NE	0.6	178	$12,000
May 17	7:12 PM CDT	EF0	Frontier, NE	0.3	40
May 17	7:15 PM CDT	EF1	Frontier, NE	4.7	400	$250,000
May 17	7:32 PM CDT	Unrated	Beaver, OK to KS	6.7	50
May 17	7:54 PM CDT	EF1	Dawson, NE	9.8	600	$900,000
May 17	8:15 PM CDT	EF0	Dawson, NE	1.6	150
May 17	8:30 PM CDT	EF1	Custer, NE	0.1	92	$15,000
May 17	8:36 PM CDT	EF0	Meade, KS	1.5	50
May 17	8:37 PM CDT	EF3	Meade, KS	29.6	600	$500,000
May 17	8:46 PM CDT	EF0	Clark, KS	0.4	25
May 17	9:30 PM CDT	EF2	Ford, KS	14.9	875
May 17	10:19 PM CDT	EF2	Edwards, KS	10.9	565
May 17	11:28 PM CDT	Unrated	Pawnee, KS	0.8	50
May 17	11:30 PM CDT	Unrated	Barton, KS	0.2	50

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.