Unrated tornado, Benkelman Jones Arpt to Benkelman, Nebraska, June 24, 2022

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 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.

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. 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.

Rating

Unrated

Date

June 24, 2022

Touchdown

7:40 PM MDT (01:40 UTC)

Lifted

7:43 PM MDT (01:43 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.1 miles (3.3 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Dundy County

Touchdown point

40.101, -101.576

Lift-off point

40.111, -101.539

Record number

2206241940-01

In the afternoon of June 24th, a single cell thunderstorm formed in eastern Colorado, near the Colorado and Kansas border. This storm split into two with the right section heading slightly north of east into Greely County, KS while the left section moved north-northwest into Cheyenne County, CO. As these storms started dissipating, a line of thunderstorms formed in northeast Colorado and moved east-northeast. These storms extended from east central Colorado into west central Nebraska. Once the line of developing storms caught up to the remnants of the first storms, which had spread into portions of southwestern Nebraska, the line intensified. Over the next few hours in Nebraska these storms produced more nickel sized hail and severe winds. In addition, a landspout tornado occurred just north of Benkelman, NE in Dundy County.

Brief landspout tornado observed by a couple trained spotters. Based on their accounts as well as radar imagery, this tornado occurred west of HWY 61 a few miles north of Benkelman, NE. Tornado stayed in open fields and no damage was observed.

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.

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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 Goodland radar (KGLD), 83 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:36 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 2022 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

10 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.