Unrated tornado, (Ibm)Kimball Arpt, Nebraska, June 28, 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 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 28, 2023

Touchdown

6:47 PM MDT (00:47 UTC)

Lifted

6:49 PM MDT (00:49 UTC)

On the ground

2 minutes

Path length

0.3 miles (0.4 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Kimball County

Touchdown point

41.063, -103.706

Lift-off point

41.063, -103.706

Record number

2306281847-01

3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS CYS, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

• Broken at 2 points on survey. Broken at base and top 25%. 45 to 50 years old. Images indicated pole was leaning prior to replacement.
• Container from farm. Small plastic tube. EFU
• Striations in fields. EF-U, likely end point.

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

Strong upper level system led to severe thunderstorm development moving into the western Nebraska Panhandle on the 28th with one particular storm tracking across Kimball County producing an EF0 tornado.

A supercell first developed over Laramie County in southeast Wyoming|dropping golf ball to baseball size hail while exhibiting mid-level|rotation. The supercell was long lived and made its way into Kimball|County, Nebraska where it began to show tornadic structure. Based off|of radar and storm spotter reports, the estimated start point is just|southeast of the intersection of County Road 29 and 14 at around 6:35|PM MDT. The tornado tracked south-southeast, remaining mainly over|open farmland, kicking up large amounts of dirt and dust. As the|tornado tracked south-southeast it eventually crossed County Road|10 between County Road 29 and 33. At this site, there was very|little damage aside from an insulator cap blown away and a loose|wire on an electrical pole. The tornado continued travailing to|the southeast on County Road 35, north of County Road 6, where|it caused minor damage to a farmhouse and the surrounding barns|on the property. Tree limbs 1 to 3 inches in diameter were broken|and scattered across the property. A few shingles were torn off|the farmhouse, an augur was pushed approximately 5 feet to the|southwest digging a groove in the soil, and a calving hut was|blown 20 feet and rotated about 100 degrees. A few hundred|yards south down County Road 35 an electrical pole roughly 50|years old was snapped at the base but still upright as it was|still attached to the electrical wires. A plastic 5 gallon bucket|from the farmhouse was thrown about half a mile away from the|home in a field off of County Road 6. Finally, the tornado|dissipated over an open field just to the west of Highway 71,|about 2 miles southeast of the farmhouse at 6:45 PM MDT.|Overall, damage seen was consistent with that of an EF-0 tornado|with maximum winds of 80 to 85 MPH.

At approximately 6:47 PM, video evidence from multiple sources|shows a satellite tornado formed to the northeast of the original|tornado after it dissipated. This tornado lasted about 1 to 2|minutes and remained over open farmland near the intersection|of County Road 10 and 31. No damage was reported, therefore the|tornado is classified as an EF-U.

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

4 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:43 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:15 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:00 UTC and running to 03:00 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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.

Kimball (IBM), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:47 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.

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

2 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.