Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2022

Unrated tornado, Petersburg, Nebraska, June 6, 2022

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Boone County on June 6, 2022, touching down at 2:29 PM CDT and reaching 20 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.

  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.

The record

Rating
Unrated
Date
June 6, 2022
Touchdown
2:29 PM CDT (19:29 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Boone County
Touchdown point
41.850, -98.100
Lift-off point
41.850, -98.100
Record number
2206061329-01

What the Weather Service recorded

Storms produced a brief tornado into addition to numerous hail reports.

Trained spotter reported watching a tornado quickly develop, damaging a center pivot irrigation system.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:09 UTC15:00 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryOAX
18:52 UTC19:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
19:21 UTC20:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
19:46 UTC20:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
20:13 UTC20:33 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
20:14 UTC20:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:30 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

7.5 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. June 6, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2022-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 539 joules per kilogram, CIN -77, lifted condensation level 994 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 2022-06-06The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -30 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
539 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-77 J/kg
Surface CAPE
323 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
994 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-30 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 155 km from the path. June 7, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2022-06-07Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 419 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 1183 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2022-06-07The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 1 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
419 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2360 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1183 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
1 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
1 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 156 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:29 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
19:28 UTCHAIL 1PetersburgBoone, NEHAIL JUST BEGAN. QUARTER SIZE HAIL SO FAR.
19:29 UTCHAIL 1.751 Wsw PetersburgBoone, NESIGNIFICANT TREE AND CROP DAMAGE FROM GOLF BALL SIZE HAIL. HAIL COVERING THE GROUND.
19:29 UTCTORNADO1 Wsw PetersburgBoone, NESPOTTER REPORTED WATCHING A TORNADO QUICKLY DEVELOP AND DAMAGE A CENTER PIVOT IRRIGATION SYSTEM. ALSO NOTED AMPLE AMOUNTS OF GOLFBALL SIZE HAIL.
19:33 UTCHAIL 1.75PetersburgBoone, NEHAIL TO AT LEAST GOLF BALL SIZE SHATTERED A POLICE VEHICLE WINDSHIELD AND ONE SIDE WINDOW.
19:35 UTCHAIL 1.252 Sw PetersburgBoone, NE
19:49 UTCHAIL 1.75AlbionBoone, NELATE REPORT.
19:52 UTCTSTM WND GST 60AlbionBoone, NE1.5 INCH HAIL AND WINDS 50 TO 60 MPH.
19:52 UTCHAIL 1.5AlbionBoone, NEHAIL TO 1.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND 50 TO 60 MPH WIND.
19:52 UTCHAIL 2.5AlbionBoone, NEDELAYED REPORT.
19:54 UTCHAIL 1.5AlbionBoone, NE
20:09 UTCHAIL 2Saint EdwardBoone, NEACCOMPANIED BY STRONG WIND.
20:13 UTCTSTM WND DMGSaint EdwardBoone, NEOVERTURNED CENTER PIVOT.
20:18 UTCHAIL 1.54 Ese Saint EdwardPlatte, NEHAIL NOT QUITE GOLF BALL SIZE REPORTED.
20:23 UTCHAIL 0.88GenoaNance, NE

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2022 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 6, 2022

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 61:47 PM MDTUnratedCherry, NE0.110
June 66:06 PM EDTEF0Saint Lucie, FL3.375$10,000
June 66:43 PM CDTEF0Haywood, TN0.140$25,000

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.