EF2 tornado, Perry to Red Willow, Nebraska, May 17, 2019

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

May 17, 2019

Touchdown

5:55 PM CDT (22:55 UTC)

Lifted

6:01 PM CDT (23:01 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

6.0 miles (9.7 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Red Willow County

Touchdown point

40.203, -100.760

Lift-off point

40.270, -100.687

Record number

1905171655-01

48 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GLD, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 122 mph.

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

Thunderstorms produce a tornado and 3 inch hail.

The tornado began just south of Highway 34 along the Red Willow and Hitchcock County line. The tornado moved north-northeast across Red Willow County before ending northwest of McCook, NE. The tornado struck a farm and this is where the most intense damage was done. Otherwise, damage consisted of sporadic tree limbs down, some barbed wire fences knocked over, irrigation pivots overturned, and minor loss of metal roofing.||The primary damage occurred when the tornado moved across a farm. The tornado entered the property from the southwest, where it went through a wind break and snapped numerous hardwood and softwood trees. The storm also destroyed 6 grain bins, 5 farm outbuildings, and produced significant damage to a house. The EF-2 rating is a direct result of the house damage, which consisted of a few collapsed exterior brick walls, uplift or removal of half of the structure's roof, and complete removal of the garage. Additional damage included shattered windows to the house and vehicles, damage to a combine due to being struck by a grain bin, damage to fences, and other trees with losses to branches.

Tornado reported north of McCook, NE. No damage was found by storm survey other than a few snapped branches off trees and minor debris from unknown sources/structures. Could not find a defined path but tornado continued into Frontier County, NE.

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

18 minutes of warning. NWS GLD issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:37 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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 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.

Mccook (MCK), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Goodland radar (KGLD), 128 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:55 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 2019 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.