EF0 tornado, Amboy to Rosemont, Nebraska, May 6, 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

May 6, 2024

Touchdown

4:19 PM CDT (21:19 UTC)

Lifted

4:29 PM CDT (21:29 UTC)

On the ground

10 minutes

Path length

7.0 miles (11.3 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$20,000

County

Webster County

Touchdown point

40.145, -98.397

Lift-off point

40.233, -98.330

Record number

2405061519-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GID, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 75 mph.

• Approximate starting location based on radar circulation
• Approximate location based upon radar circulation.

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

Potent upper level low brings widespread severe weather to much of the Central Plains, including portions of south central Nebraska, during the afternoon and early evening hours of May 6th. The initial thunderstorms developed in the Norton, KS area between noon and 1PM CDT, then shifted NE into portions of Furnas, Harlan, and Franklin Counties between noon and 3PM. The initial threat with these more discrete cells was hail up to golf ball size. However, as storms transitioned more linear after 3PM along and east of Hwy 281, the primary severe hazard became damaging straight-line winds. A single, brief weak QLCS tornado (EF-0) was also reported near Cowles in Webster County. The leading edge of the line of thunderstorms that posed the damaging wind threat largely shifted east of the GID CWA around or shortly after 6PM CDT. The severe threat persisted through the evening hours for much of eastern Nebraska and Kansas.

This tornado formed within a line of thunderstorms moving across Webster County. Damage along its seven mile path included minor tree damage at a few locations, an overturned camper, a broken window, and damage to older outbuildings. The tornado was likely embedded in heavy rain and difficult to visually distinguish from the low clouds, rain, and straight-line winds associated with the line of storms. It lifted after doing some minor tree damage along Highway 78 near S Road. The estimated peak wind was 75 MPH.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:39 UTC and running to 00:00 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 Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:43 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 Grand Island radar (KUEX), 16 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:19 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

40 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.