EF0 tornado, Clarkson to Howells, Nebraska, April 16, 2024

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   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. 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

EF0

Date

April 16, 2024

Touchdown

1:18 PM CDT (18:18 UTC)

Lifted

1:23 PM CDT (18:23 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

1.1 miles (1.7 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Colfax County

Touchdown point

41.680, -97.120

Lift-off point

41.690, -97.100

Record number

2404161218-01

11 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

• Small open-door outbuilding was flipped upward. Another small outbuilding lost roof paneling. Other nearby buildings undamaged, and minimal tree damage next to the buildings, other than one large cedar tree which was split down the middle.
• Cattle shed rolled. Video from a farm one half mile away suggests that this is where the tornado began as the storm updraft to the west ingested rotation from a weak boundary.
• A detached garage experienced collapse of walls and uplift of the roof. The roof and some other debris were deposited 30 to 50 yards downstream. Other nearby small outbuildings were not damaged, and nearby trees experienced minimal damage. The house, located about 20 yards from the garage, was also largely untouched.
• Cattle shed overturned. Nearby trees experienced minimal damage. Tornado ended very near this location.

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

At midnight on the 16th, non-severe thunderstorms were ongoing across portions of northeast Nebraska and western Iowa. With these storms being rooted in a nearly stationary boundary co-located with the exit region of a low-level jet, this area saw prolonged periods of moderate to heavy rain. This resulted in isolated instances of flash flooding, especially for rural portions of western Wayne County where several roads were reported under water.||By 4 am, A round of strong to severe thunderstorms entered eastern Nebraska from the west and south. These storms were co-located with a tongue of enhanced instability and low-level shear as the surface low occluded in central Nebraska. Scattered instances of damaging wind and continued isolated flooding were reported through the early morning hours.||While the main round of thunderstorms continued east into Iowa and Missouri by late morning, continued redevelopment of thunderstorms persisted through the afternoon hours across portions of northeast Nebraska. This resulted from forcing for ascent and steep lapse rates associated with the cut-off low lingering in central Nebraska. Just before noon through the early afternoon hours on the 16th, the Omaha-Valley NWS received reports of funnel clouds and brief spin-up tornadoes associated with these storms. NWS damage surveys concluded that there were 4 EF-0 tornadoes, two in Platte County and two in Colfax County. Scattered showers and storms lingered across the area through the evening of the 16th as the low-pressure system weakened and slowly moved northeast into the upper Midwest.

Eyewitness reports and photo and video evidence show that the long-lived funnel cloud formed a ground circulation that began at approximately 118 local time and lasted for approximately 5 minutes. It slowly traveled northeast during this time, with the only damage being some minor damage to tree branches.

Detailed reports from a combination of emergency management, eyewitnesses, and video evidence from storm spotters indicate this as the path of the tornado. Eyewitness accounts indicate that the final 1.5 miles of the track were intermittent, with occasional debris and dust at the ground level. These reports also indicate that the tornado began at 1:39 PM and lasted for approximately 10 minutes, which aligns well with the storm's motion. There were at least 2 center pivots damaged along the track and some minor damage to small outbuildings where tin roofing material was removed. These damage indicators and the degree of damage indicate that the tornado was an EF-0 with maximum winds of approximately 75 mph. Video evidence of the dust field suggests a width of approximately 40 yards.

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

11 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:07 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:32 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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:40 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.

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:16 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 2024 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

30 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.