Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2022

Unrated tornado, Irwin, Nebraska, June 6, 2022

This Unrated tornado ran 0.1 miles across Cherry County on June 6, 2022, touching down at 1:47 PM MDT 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.

  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
1:47 PM MDT (19:47 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cherry County
Touchdown point
42.920, -101.920
Lift-off point
42.920, -101.920
Record number
2206061347-01

The damage survey

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LBF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry.

  • Brief tornado touchdown, no damage reported.

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 persistent stationary front served as the focal point for thunderstorm development during the afternoon hours of June 6th. Thunderstorms developed over western Cherry and Sheridan county and tracked to the southeast, across the Sandhills into portions of central Nebraska. A brief tornado touch down was reported over far northwestern Cherry county. Hail up to golf ball size and thunderstorm wind gusts to 70 MPH were reported with the strongest storms.

Gordon Rushville Fire Department reported a brief touchdown.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:49 UTC20:30 UTCTornado WarningLBF
20:21 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
20:25 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchLBF
20:28 UTC21:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
20:58 UTC21:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
21:01 UTC22:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
21:13 UTC22:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
21:49 UTC22:07 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
21:59 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
22:39 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
22:57 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF
23:48 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLBF

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. 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.

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 12:00Z

7.8 hours before the tornado, 149 km from the path. June 6, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD 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 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -148, lifted condensation level 1392 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Rapid City, SD 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 47 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-148 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1392 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
131 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Rapid City, SD (KUNR), 00:00Z

4.2 hours after it, 149 km from the path. June 7, 2022.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Rapid City, SD 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 4 joules per kilogram, CIN -175, lifted condensation level 788 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Rapid City, SD 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 -50 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 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
4 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-175 J/kg
Surface CAPE
496 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
788 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-50 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
47 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Gordon (GRN), 24 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:55 UTC70.555.2230° 4 kt1010.2
18:15 UTC71.255240° 3 kt1010.2
18:35 UTC70.754.5330° 7 kt1010.2
18:55 UTC68.256.7280° 5 kt1009.8
19:15 UTC69.656.5220° 6 kt1010.2
19:35 UTC71.652.20° 0 kt1009.5VCTS
19:55 UTC7455.6330° 6 kt1009.5
20:15 UTC7455280° 7 kt1009.1
20:35 UTC735710° 10 kt1008.8
20:55 UTC72.555.640° 7 kt1008.8
21:15 UTC7455.820° 6 kt1008.8
21:35 UTC74.754.70° 0 kt1008.5

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Rapid City radar (KUDX), 153 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:47 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
19:47 UTCTORNADO11 W MerrimanCherry, NEGORDON RUSHVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT REPORTED A LANDSPOUT TORNADO BRIEFLY TOUCHING DOWN.
20:24 UTCHAIL 1.255 S MerrimanCherry, NEREPORT VIA TWITTER.
21:59 UTCHAIL 110 Wsw MerrimanCherry, NEVIA SPOTTERNETWORK.ORG
22:00 UTCHAIL 1.759 Sw MerrimanCherry, 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 62:29 PM CDTUnratedBoone, NE0.120
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.