EF0 tornado, Tilden, Nebraska, August 10, 2025

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

August 10, 2025

Touchdown

2:49 AM CDT (07:49 UTC)

Lifted

2:52 AM CDT (07:52 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.4 miles (3.8 km)

Path width

10 yards (9 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Otoe County

Touchdown point

40.591, -96.064

Lift-off point

40.589, -96.020

Record number

2508100149-01

4 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 70 mph.

• Damage to corn based on aerial survey

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

A powerful line of thunderstorms, bringing with it a broad swath of damaging winds, swept across eastern Nebraska and western Iowa on the morning of August 10, 2025. This episode of severe weather was responsible for numerous reports of wind gusts exceeding 60 mph, significant structural damage, and tragically, one fatality. The thunderstorms developed as a powerful low-pressure system moved across the northern Great Plains, with a front extending through eastern Nebraska and into Kansas. A steady low-level jet, a narrow band of strong winds just above the ground, transported a large amount of moisture into the area. This influx of moisture, combined with very unstable atmospheric conditions, created a high potential for severe weather. Although the lower atmosphere was noted to be a bit dry, forecasters highlighted that the conditions were ripe for strong downdrafts or downbursts, which ultimately led to the widespread and destructive winds and a brief tornado. ||The event began in southeastern Nebraska, with the first reports coming from Jefferson County just after midnight CST. At approximately 12:29 AM CST, law enforcement reported a power pole down 4 miles west of Endicott, with an estimated wind gust of 95 mph. Minutes later, at 12:48 AM CST, a significant gust of 90 mph caused damage to a large grain bin 2 miles west-southwest of Plymouth, according to a public report. Other reports in Jefferson County included a 62 mph gust measured by a mesonet station 6 miles west-northwest of Fairbury , and a 65 mph gust reported by a public mesonet station in Plymouth. The storm progressed into Lancaster and Johnson counties with reports of wind gusts of 66 mph and 60 mph from public mesonet stations near Hickman and Bennet, respectively. Law enforcement in Johnson County also reported extensive roof damage to two buildings north of Tecumseh around 1:40 AM CST. An emergency manager noted broken tree limbs 6 to 8 inches in diameter in the same area.||As the storm moved into Otoe and Nemaha counties, it continued to produce high-end wind damage. An emergency manager reported that a grain bin and a shed were destroyed near Julian, Nebraska, due to a 95 mph wind gust at 2:04 AM CST. A severe gust of 90 mph was measured by the AWOS station 5 miles south of Nebraska City at 2:10 AM CST before the sensor went offline. This gust also caused damage to sheds at the local airport.||The thunderstorms then pushed into western Iowa, where a significant line of damage reports was received in Fremont and Mills counties. Emergency management reported extensive tree damage in Riverton, Iowa, from a 90 mph gust at 2:20 AM CST. Farther north, a gust measured at 74 mph was reported from a public mesonet station 4 miles north-northeast of Tabor in Mills County at 2:28 AM CST. In Fremont County, emergency management reported several instances of high-end wind damage, including significant roof and wall damage to a large barn and a destroyed shed 3 miles south-southeast of Farragut, with estimated gusts of 95 mph. Extensive tree damage was also noted in Farragut itself from a 90 mph gust.||The event culminated in Page County, Iowa, with the most severe impact of the morning. At 2:32 AM CST, emergency management reported that a shed was overturned at a campsite 1 mile north-northwest of Shenandoah. This incident resulted in one fatality. The wind event also caused significant tree damage across the town, with numerous large trees snapped and other minor structural damage. Later in Shenandoah, at 2:37 AM CST, a semi-truck was overturned in a retail lot, with an estimated wind gust of 70 mph. The last report in the county was a 64 mph gust measured by a public mesonet station 4 miles east-northeast of Essex at 2:46 AM CST.

An aerial survey identified a narrow tornado track through crop fields just south of Lorton, NE. Radar data was used to estimate the start and end time of the tornado, beginning at approximately 01:49 AM CST and ending at 01:52 CST. The tornado had a maximum width of 10 yards and traveled 2.36 miles.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 01:56 UTC and running to 08:29 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:00 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), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:50 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 2025 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

4 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.