EF1 tornado, Sutton, Nebraska, July 29, 2023

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 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF1

Date

July 29, 2023

Touchdown

6:53 AM CDT (11:53 UTC)

Lifted

6:56 AM CDT (11:56 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

1.6 miles (2.6 km)

Path width

260 yards (238 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$750,000

County

Clay County

Touchdown point

40.612, -97.866

Lift-off point

40.597, -97.843

Record number

2307290553-01

48 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.

• Windows blown in on brick building.
• Bricks knocked off of top of buildings downtown. Roof from building to the north was likely dragged over the top of these buildings.
• Tops of trees damaged. Clear tornado path. Picture is looking northwest of downtown
• Brick wall pushed over. No rebar. Roof removed. Westward facing garage door.

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

An upper level ridge was centered from the Four Corners Region to Arkansas. South central and central Nebraska were on the northern edge of this ridge. A weak upper trough extended over much of the Midwest. Temperatures were generally in the 70s during the early morning hours of July 29th across central and south central Nebraska. Dewpoint temperatures were generally in the mid 60s to lower 70s. Most unstable CAPE values were over 3,000 J/kg and the effective shear was around 40 knots. Surface winds were out of the north to northeast and winds at 500 millibars were out of the northwest. ||A complex of thunderstorms developed and strengthened over the Nebraska Sandhills during the early morning hours of July 29th and moved southeast. These storms began impacting the area just after 4:30 AM CDT in Valley County with wind gusts of 66 to 81 mph which caused tree damage. This complex of storms continued to move southeast across central and south central Nebraska and impacted Dawson, Phelps, Howard, Hall, Adams, Hamilton, Clay, and Fillmore Counties with severe wind gusts. These wind gusts ranged from 58 mph to 72 mph and resulted in tree and power pole damage. The final report of severe winds was at 7:30 AM CDT in Fillmore County. The most significant event was a brief tornado that had developed within the line/complex of storms in Clay County just before 7 AM CDT. The tornado moved from northwest to southeast across the town of Sutton. This tornado resulted in damage to trees, small outbuildings, homes, buildings, garages, a golf course, and a corn field. The tornado was rated as an EF-1 with winds up to 110 mph.

A brief tornado developed within a long-lived line of thunderstorms just prior to 7 AM CDT on July 29th. This tornado moved from northwest to southeast across the town of Sutton. The first visible damage occurred as the tornado developed on the northwest edge of Sutton. Tree damage was the most obvious damage in this area, with several large branches snapped. Some small outbuildings were also overturned and damaged, along with minor damage to homes, including windows, doors and siding. Roofing damage was limited in the early portions of the path. Most notable damage occurred in the downtown area of Sutton, where a steel roof was peeled off of a downtown building and lofted about one block to the south. There was also damage to brickwork on buildings, presumably as this roof was dragged across the top of adjacent buildings. This is where the estimated peak wind speeds of 110 MPH occurred. The tornado then continued southeast, snapping several trees across the southeast half of town. An old garage was also swept off of its foundation and blown into a nearby home and garage, causing significant damage to those buildings. Finally the tornado passed onto the golf course on the southeast edge of town. A maintenance building was severely damaged and several healthy trees were snapped. From here, the tornado passed into a corn field, producing a small path of crop damage. The tornado appeared to have lifted less than one-half mile southeast of Sutton.

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 09:00 UTC and running to 15:13 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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:48 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.

Aurora (AUH), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:53 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 2023 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.