Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2020
EF0 tornado, Arnold, Nebraska, June 8, 2020
This EF0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Custer County on June 8, 2020, touching down at 6:48 PM CDT and reaching 10 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
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 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- June 8, 2020
- Touchdown
- 6:48 PM CDT (23:48 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:50 PM CDT (23:50 UTC)
- On the ground
- 2 minutes
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.0 km)
- Path width
- 10 yards (9 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Custer County
- Touchdown point
- 41.520, -100.140
- Lift-off point
- 41.520, -100.140
- Record number
- 2006081748-01
The damage survey
1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LBF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 70 mph.
- A brief tornado was reported, however no damage occurred.
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 deep trough across the western U.S. caused strong low pressure to develop across the Central Plains. An associated cold front brought a round of strong to severe thunderstorms to the area.
A brief tornado was observed. No damage was reported.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:56 UTC and running to 06:51 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:56 UTC | 06:51 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | LBF |
| 23:03 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LBF |
| 23:42 UTC | 00:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LBF |
| 23:54 UTC | 00:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 00:00 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Flood Watch | LBF |
| 00:42 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 01:21 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | LBF |
| 01:23 UTC | 10:15 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | LBF |
| 01:29 UTC | 11:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | 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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:02 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), 12:00Z
11.8 hours before the tornado, 58 km from the path. June 8, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 204 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -320 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 340 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1068 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 56 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 85 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 161 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.4 K/km
N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z
0.2 hours after it, 58 km from the path. June 9, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1670 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -40 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2735 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1799 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 64 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 149 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 403 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.8
- Supercell composite
- 20.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.9 K/km
The radar
The North Platte radar (KLNX), 61 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:49 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23:31 UTC | HAIL 1 | 11 N Arnold | Custer, NE | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). |
| 23:34 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 4 N Arnold | Custer, NE | |
| 23:35 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 3 N Arnold | Custer, NE | REPORT FROM MPING: PING PONG BALL (1.50 IN.). |
| 23:36 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 4 N Arnold | Custer, NE | REPORT FROM MPING: HALF DOLLAR (1.25 IN.). |
| 23:50 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Nne Arnold | Custer, NE | ON THE GROUND FOR APPROXIMATELY 2 MINUTES. |
| 23:50 UTC | TORNADO | 7 Nne Arnold | Custer, NE | |
| 23:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Nne Brewster | Blaine, NE | |
| 23:55 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | Sw Maxwell | Lincoln, NE | |
| 00:07 UTC | HAIL 1 | 17 N Arnold | Custer, NE | |
| 00:26 UTC | TORNADO | 12 Ne Maxwell | Lincoln, NE | DELAYED REPORT. BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN WITH NO DAMAGE REPORTED. REPORT UPDATED FOR LAT AND LONG. |
| 00:26 UTC | TORNADO | 14 N Brady | Lincoln, NE | DELAYED REPORT. BRIEF TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN WITH NO DAMAGE REPORTED. |
| 00:41 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 16 Se Stapleton | Lincoln, NE | TIME AND LOCATION IS APPROXIMATED. |
| 00:46 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Nnw Milburn | Blaine, NE | DELAYED REPORT VIA EMAIL |
| 00:52 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | 7 W Merna | Custer, NE | |
| 00:53 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Arnold | Custer, NE | WEAK TORNADO. |
| 01:15 UTC | HAIL 2.5 | 10 Nnw Maxwell | Lincoln, NE | MOSTLY QUARTER SIZED HAIL, BUT REACHED TENNIS BALL SIZE. |
| 01:20 UTC | TORNADO | 8 W Merna | Custer, NE | |
| 01:25 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Arnold | Custer, NE | 1 FOOT OF WATER OVER HIGHWAY 47 IN ARNOLD. |
| 01:45 UTC | HAIL 1.5 | 1 S Gandy | Logan, NE | |
| 01:52 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 3.3 | 7 E Stapleton | Logan, NE | REPORT VIA FIRE CHIEF OF 3.3 INCHES OF RAINFALL, STORM TOTAL. |
| 02:45 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Stapleton | Logan, NE | FLASH FLOODING OVER MANY COUNTY ROADS ACROSS SOUTHERN LOGAN COUNTY. WATER UP TO THE EDGE OF HIGHWAY 83 SOUTH OF STAPLETON. |
| 02:45 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 Wsw Brewster | Blaine, NE | 5.5 INCH RAIN GAUGE FILLED TO CAPACITY IN THE MORNING. |
| 02:45 UTC | HAIL 1.75 | 2 Wsw Brewster | Blaine, NE |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2020 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 8, 2020
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 8 | 4:17 PM CDT | EF0 | Steele, ND | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| June 8 | 4:30 PM CDT | EF1 | Steele, ND | 7.0 | 250 | $35,000 | ||
| June 8 | 5:09 PM CDT | EF0 | Grand Forks, ND | 3.0 | 150 | $5,000 | ||
| June 8 | 7:17 PM CDT | EF1 | Marshall, MN | 9.0 | 300 | $6,000 | ||
| June 8 | 7:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Lincoln, NE | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 8 | 7:46 PM CDT | EF0 | Blaine, NE | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 8 | 7:53 PM CDT | EF0 | Custer, NE | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 8 | 8:20 PM CDT | EF0 | Custer, NE | 0.0 | 10 | |||
| June 8 | 8:45 PM CDT | EF1 | Lake of the Woods, MN | 1.2 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| June 8 | 11:34 PM CDT | Unrated | Miner, SD | 0.0 | 5 |
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.