Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2024

EF0 tornado, Wisner, Nebraska, June 15, 2024

This EF0 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Cuming County on June 15, 2024, touching down at 6:57 PM CDT and reaching 25 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 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.

The record

Rating
EF0
Date
June 15, 2024
Touchdown
6:57 PM CDT (23:57 UTC)
Lifted
6:58 PM CDT (23:58 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
1.1 miles (1.7 km)
Path width
25 yards (23 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Cuming County
Touchdown point
42.038, -97.019
Lift-off point
42.049, -97.005
Record number
2406151757-01

The damage survey

3 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 84 mph.

  • Very minor sun-shade damage at feedlot.
  • Ending point based on video and witness account.
  • Window broke out of home and a few old trees were snapped.

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

On the morning of the 15th, upper air analysis showed a shortwave trough centered over the High Plains. At the surface, a warm front draped across the Plains slowly lifted north throughout the day, eventually stalling out across eastern Nebraska and down into northwestern Missouri. That afternoon, two areas of thunderstorm development was noted, one in northeast Kansas and another in northeast Nebraska. The thunderstorms in northeast Kansas quickly grew upscale into an MCS bringing strong winds and a brief spin-up tornado to southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa. The thunderstorms in northeast Nebraska were tied to a lingering MCV, with the storm mode initially remaining as clustered supercells. This brought large hail and several tornadoes across northeast Nebraska before finally growing upscale into a second MCS and tracking east into west-central Iowa.

This is a continuation of the EF-0 tornado that occurred in northeast Stanton County. This tornado did not produce any further damage in Cuming County. The end of the tornadoes track was determined using chaser footage. The peak estimated windspeeds in this tornado were 70 miles per hour, with a width of 25 yards.

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

The warnings

15 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:42 UTC, 15 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:52 UTC and running to 03:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:52 UTC03:00 UTCTornado WatchOAX
23:01 UTC23:31 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
23:25 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
23:42 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:06 UTC00:14 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:10 UTC00:45 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:22 UTC00:32 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:24 UTC00:39 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
00:36 UTC01:15 UTCTornado WarningOAX
00:42 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
00:53 UTC02:50 UTCFlash Flood WarningOAX
00:56 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
01:07 UTC01:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningOAX
02:57 UTC12:45 UTCFlood WarningOAX

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 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

0.0 hours before the tornado, 96 km from the path. June 16, 2024.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2024-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2168 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 848 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 2024-06-16The 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 323 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
2168 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3121 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
848 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
323 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
532 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.3
Supercell composite
21.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Omaha radar (KOAX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:56 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
22:50 UTCTORNADO4 Ssw Battle CreekMadison, NE
23:25 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD9 Ne Newman GroveMadison, NE
23:37 UTCTORNADO7 S WinsideStanton, NEEF-0. NWS in collaboration with Stanton County Emergency Management confirmed that a tornado occurred at this location. This was a very brief tornado caused window damage to a home and several trees sustained damage.
23:42 UTCFLOOD2 Ne HoskinsWayne, NEDelayed report. Water partially covering county road near Hoskins.
23:45 UTCHAIL 1.753 N CrestonStanton, NEApproximately a 5 mile long by 2 mile wide swath of hail with up to golfball size observed.
23:55 UTCFLASH FLOODNorfolkMadison, NEDelayed report. Lots of street flooding reported in Norfolk.
23:56 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Nne PilgerStanton, NE
23:56 UTCTORNADO2 Ne PilgerStanton, NEEF-0. NWS in collaboration with Stanton County Emergency Management confirmed a tornado damage path that began at this location. Documented from storm chaser video, this tornado developed just northeast of Pilger, north
23:58 UTCTORNADO4 Ne PilgerCuming, NE
00:06 UTCTORNADO5 N ClarksonStanton, NEEF-1. NWS in coordination with Stanton County Emergency Management concluded that an EF-1 tornado began at this location. Based on chaser video as well as drone footage, this tornado developed 5.5 miles north of Clarkson
00:07 UTCTORNADO4 N ClarksonStanton, NE
00:10 UTCTORNADO5 N ClarksonStanton, NE
00:16 UTCTORNADO7 Nne ClarksonStanton, NE
00:21 UTCTORNADO3 W PenderThurston, NE
00:28 UTCTORNADO8 N HowellsStanton, NE
00:42 UTCFUNNEL CLOUD2 Nnw EmersonDixon, NEWall cloud to the north of Emerson briefly dropped a funnel cloud. Time and location estimated by radar.
01:30 UTCFLASH FLOOD3 Nnw MadisonMadison, NEDelayed report. Many county roads flooded in addition to considerable lowland flooding.
01:50 UTCFLASH FLOOD8 Nne ClarksonStanton, NEDelayed report. Highway 32 experienced flooding west of the Highway 15 junction.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2024 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 15, 2024

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 155:42 PM CDTEF1Madison, NE0.7300
June 156:14 PM CDTUnratedMadison, NE0.010
June 156:37 PM CDTEF0Stanton, NE0.120
June 156:56 PM CDTEF0Stanton, NE1.125
June 157:06 PM CDTEF1Stanton, NE2.150
June 157:07 PM CDTUnratedJohnson, NE0.420

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.