Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2020
Unrated tornado, Hedrix, Nebraska, June 9, 2020
This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Jefferson County on June 9, 2020, touching down at 6:03 PM CDT and reaching 1 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 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 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.
Unratedthis tornado
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
- Unrated
- Date
- June 9, 2020
- Touchdown
- 6:03 PM CDT (23:03 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 1 yards (1 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Jefferson County
- Touchdown point
- 40.160, -97.230
- Lift-off point
- 40.160, -97.230
- Record number
- 2006091703-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A warm front moved north and produced a brief tornado and wind damage. A cold front quickly followed the warm front and let to several reports of 50+ mph non-thunderstorm winds.
Broadcast media reported a brief tornado near Fairbury.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
6 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:57 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:37 UTC and running to 01:26 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 19:37 UTC | 01:26 UTC | Tornado Watch | OAX |
| 20:00 UTC | 09:00 UTC | High Wind Warning | OAX |
| 21:00 UTC | 08:57 UTC | Flash Flood Watch | OAX |
| 21:00 UTC | 08:22 UTC | High Wind Watch | OAX |
| 22:53 UTC | 23:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX |
| 22:57 UTC | 23:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OAX |
| 23:10 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX |
| 23:13 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX |
| 23:16 UTC | 23:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | OAX |
| 23:31 UTC | 01:33 UTC | Flood Advisory | OAX |
| 23:31 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | OAX |
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. 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.
Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z
11.1 hours before the tornado, 148 km from the path. June 9, 2020.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 384 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -304 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 268 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 994 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 73 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 71 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
The radar
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 104 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:02 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:01 UTC | HAIL 0.7 | Geneva | Fillmore, NE | PUBLIC REPORT OF PEA TO DIME SIZE HAIL IN GENEVA. |
| 21:01 UTC | HAIL 1 | Geneva | Fillmore, NE | REPORT FROM MPING: QUARTER (1.00 IN.). |
| 22:45 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ne Hubbell | Thayer, NE | INITIAL REPORT OF 5 MILES WEST OF REYNOLDS MOVING EAST AT 545PM, REPORT ALSO REFERENCED 3 W OF REYNOLDS AT 550PM. REPORT WAS FROM FIRE/WEATHER SPOTTER FOR COUNTY. |
| 23:03 UTC | TORNADO 0 | 3 Wnw Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | BROADCAST MEDIA REPORTED A TORNADO NEAR FAIRBURY. |
| 23:03 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wnw Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TORNADO REPORT FROM 3 WNW FAIRBURY. BROADCAST MEDIA REPORTED A TORNADO NEAR FAIRBURY. |
| 23:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | CORRECTS PREVIOUS TSTM WND DMG REPORT FROM FAIRBURY. UPROOTED TREES. LIMBS UP TO 4 INCHES BROKEN OFF. BUILDING DAMAGE FROM TREES. NUMEROUS POWER OUTAGES IN THE FAIRBURY AREA. |
| 23:05 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | UPROOTED TREES. LIMBS UP TO 4 INCHES BROKEN OFF. BUILDING DAMAGE FROM TREES. NUMEROUS POWER OUTAGES IN THE FAIRBURY AREA. |
| 23:06 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | SEVERAL LIMBS DOWN DUE TO THUNDERSTORM WINDS. |
| 23:07 UTC | TSTM WND GST 91 | 3 N Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT REPORTS THAT 91 MPH WIND GUSTS WAS MEASURED AT FAIRBURY AIRPORT. A HANGAR DOOR WAS BLOWN OUT. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR. |
| 23:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wsw Endicott | Jefferson, NE | TWO TREES DOWN. DAMAGE TO ROOF SHINGLES. |
| 23:15 UTC | HAIL 1 | 6 Se Daykin | Jefferson, NE | QUARTER SIZE OR SLIGHTLY LARGER HAIL. MORE SIGNIFICANT CROP DAMAGE OCCURRED 1 MILE NW OF THIS LOCATION, BUT UNKNOWN HAIL SIZE. |
| 23:23 UTC | HAIL 1 | 1 Nne Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | |
| 23:30 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wsw Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | PUBLIC SENT IN PICTURE ON SOCIAL MEDIA OF LARGE LIMB DOWN FROM TREE. |
| 23:30 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 54 | 2 Wsw Fairbury | Jefferson, NE | MESONET STATION CW6705 FAIRBURY. |
| 23:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Beatrice | Gage, NE | REPORT FROM MPING: 1-INCH TREE LIMBS BROKEN; SHINGLES BLOWN OFF. |
| 23:44 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | De Witt | Saline, NE | CORRECTED FOR TIME OF EVENT. TREE LIMBS DOWN IN DE WITT. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR DATA. |
| 23:48 UTC | FLOOD | 3 N Chester | Thayer, NE | REPORT FROM MPING: RIVER/CREEK OVERFLOWING; CROPLAND/YARD/BASEMENT FLOODING. |
| 23:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Beatrice | Gage, NE | LARGE TREE SPLIT. |
| 23:53 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Se Clatonia | Gage, NE | 4 INCH DIAMETER LIMB DOWN. TIME ESTIMATED BASED ON RADAR DATA. |
| 23:55 UTC | HAIL 1 | 2 Ese Wilber | Saline, NE | A FEW HAIL STONES UP TO THE SIZE OF QUARTERS. |
| 00:39 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 59 | 4 N Shickley | Fillmore, NE | |
| 01:38 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nnw Deshler | Thayer, NE | 2 DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES DOWN. |
| 01:38 UTC | NON-TSTM WND DMG | 1 Nnw Deshler | Thayer, NE | 2 DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES DOWN. |
| 01:47 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Deshler | Thayer, NE | 6-8 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN. |
| 01:47 UTC | NON-TSTM WND DMG | Deshler | Thayer, NE | 6-8 INCH TREE LIMBS DOWN. |
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 9, 2020
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.