EF2 tornado, Dorchester to Garland, Nebraska, December 15, 2021

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

December 15, 2021

Touchdown

3:11 PM CST (21:11 UTC)

Lifted

3:29 PM CST (21:29 UTC)

On the ground

18 minutes

Path length

23.7 miles (38.2 km)

Path width

70 yards (64 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Counties

Saline, Seward and Lancaster counties

Touchdown point

40.620, -97.070

Lift-off point

40.900, -96.810

Record number

2112151511-01

14 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 112 mph.

• Limbs already trimmed and down. Direction of damage unknown.
• Top half of 100 year, well constructed barn lofted/destroyed. Barn foundation pulled from rebar attachment to foundation and moved 1 foot. Collapse of second outbuilding downstream. Large dent in grain storage bin. Outbuilding doors blown inward on hinges. Boat dock detached from wood posts and flung over pond. Homeowner witnessed "blur of white" for about 10 seconds.
• Large Quonset hut pulled from bolted cement foundation and destroyed. Debris strewn NNE toward I-80. Fifth wheel moved/drug 3 feet. Porch and porch ramp anchored by wood posts pulled up and moved several inches.
• New power poles. Older broken/dislodged.

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

A low pressure system brought strong (both thunderstorm, and non-thunderstorm) winds, tornadoes, dust, snow, and record temperatures into eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The event was determined to be a derecho meeting the criteria of wind damage extending more than 250 miles, including wind gusts of at least 58 mph and numerous gusts of at least 75 mph.

This is segmnent 1 of 3 of an EF-2 tornado that began in northeast Saline County where it overturned numerous irrigation pivots. This tornado continued northeast into It continued northeastward into Seward County.

This is segment 2 of 3 of an EF-2 tornado that came out of northeast Saline County. In Seward County it damaged trees and farm outbuildings, passing just southeast of Pleasant Dale. The tornado then crossed into Lancaster County.

This is segement 3 of 3 of an EF-2 tornado that crossed from Seward County into Lancaster County. After passing southeast of Pleasant Dale and crossed into Lancaster County, the tornado produced its most substantial damage, tearing off the top half of a 100 year old barn and pulling the barn itself from its rebar attachment to the foundation. Other outbuildings and grain bins were also damaged in this area. The tornado continued northeastward and passed near the southeast end of Pawnee Lake, damaging power poles in the area. The path continued northeastward, damaging trees and eventually crossing Highway 34 just east of Malcolm Road before dissipating shortly thereafter.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 19:23 UTC and running to 22:18 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:28 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.

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 79 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:14 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 2021 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

124 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 125 of them

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.