Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2023

Unrated tornado, Bushnell, Nebraska, May 27, 2023

This Unrated tornado ran 0.5 miles across Kimball County on May 27, 2023, touching down at 6:06 PM MDT and reaching 50 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
May 27, 2023
Touchdown
6:06 PM MDT (00:06 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Kimball County
Touchdown point
41.260, -103.930
Lift-off point
41.260, -103.930
Record number
2305271806-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A few strong to locally severe thunderstorms impacted far western Nebraska along the Wyoming border during the late afternoon and early evening hours on 5/27. These storms produced strong wind gusts and some hail across portions of Banner and Kimball counties. A brief tornado was also observed northwest of Bushnell.

Trained weather spotters observed a brief tornado approximately 3 miles NW of Bushnell.

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

The warnings

4 minutes of warning. NWS CYS issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:02 UTC, 4 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:45 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:04 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:04 UTC03:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchCYS
23:32 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
00:02 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningCYS
00:15 UTC01:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS
01:00 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningCYS

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 19:42 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.1 hours before the tornado, 279 km from the path. May 28, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2023-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 141 joules per kilogram, CIN -49, lifted condensation level 1488 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 00:00Z on 2023-05-28The 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 -17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 8 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
141 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-49 J/kg
Surface CAPE
873 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1488 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 12:00Z

11.9 hours after it, 279 km from the path. May 28, 2023.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2023-05-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -99679, lifted condensation level 1167 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE at 12:00Z on 2023-05-28The 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 -183 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-99679 J/kg
Surface CAPE
18 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1167 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-183 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-25 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:07 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
21:11 UTCHAIL 0.7512 S KimballKimball, NEREPORT FROM MPING: DIME (0.75 IN.).
22:30 UTCHAIL 0.88BushnellKimball, NE
23:56 UTCTSTM WND GST 6012 Wsw HarrisburgBanner, NECORRECTS REPORT FOR 50 SE LA GRANGE.
23:56 UTCTSTM WND GST 6050 Se La GrangeKimball, NE
00:00 UTCTSTM WND DMG2.3 Se BushnellKimball, NEPORTIONS OF METAL ROOF TORN OFF FROM BUILDING. REPORTED BY LARAMIE COUNTY FD #3.
00:06 UTCHAIL 13 S BushnellKimball, NE
00:06 UTCTORNADO3 Nw BushnellKimball, NE

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 27, 2023

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 272:17 PM MDTUnratedAlbany, WY7.4100
May 274:02 PM MDTUnratedLaramie, WY0.550
May 276:01 PM MDTEF0Owyhee, ID5.03
May 276:10 PM MDTUnratedLea, NM1.050
May 276:29 PM MDTUnratedKiowa, CO0.91
May 276:38 PM MDTUnratedLea, NM3.550
May 278:26 PM CDTUnratedYoakum, TX0.730

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.