Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2025
EF2 tornado, Hayes Center, Nebraska, May 18, 2025
This EF2 tornado ran 17.8 miles across Hayes and Lincoln counties on May 18, 2025, touching down at 7:35 PM CDT and reaching 1,000 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.5 million of property damage.
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.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 mphthis tornado
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.
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.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- EF2
- Date
- May 18, 2025
- Touchdown
- 7:35 PM CDT (00:35 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:09 PM CDT (01:09 UTC)
- On the ground
- 34 minutes
- Path length
- 17.8 miles (28.6 km)
- Path width
- 1,000 yards (914 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $1.5 million
- Counties
- Hayes and Lincoln counties
- Touchdown point
- 40.510, -101.090
- Lift-off point
- 40.750, -100.980
- Record number
- 2505181835-01
The damage survey
13 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS LBF, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 115 mph.
- In addition to downed powerlines, pivots were flipped and grain bins rolled.
- Multiple power poles snapped and pivots overturned.
- County Road sign bent and twisted.
- Several power poles, leaning or broken
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
Thunderstorms developed over northeastern Colorado and northwestern Kansas during the late afternoon hours of May 18th. This activity developed in advance of an approaching mid level trough of low pressure and frontal boundary oriented from southeastern Wyoming into northwestern Kansas. Severe thunderstorms lifted into southwestern Nebraska and the southeastern Nebraska Panhandle, ending up in the Sandhills and portions of central Nebraska. Hail to around 3 inches in diameter, wind gusts up to 67 MPH and a tornado was reported with these severe storms.
Tornado touched down in pastureland destroying a windmill and numerous trees. The tornado then tracked to the north northeast over the next 34 minutes destroying outbuildings at a farmstead and feed lot and overturning several center pivot irrigation systems. Numerous power poles were also snapped by the tornado before dissipating south of Dickens Nebraska.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Imperial Municip (IML), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Goodland radar (KGLD), 151 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:35 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 18, 2025
42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 18 | 3:08 AM CDT | EF1 | Carroll, MS | 14.4 | 1,100 | $500,000 | ||
| May 18 | 1:07 PM MDT | EF2 | Arapahoe, CO | 0.9 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 1:23 PM MDT | EF1 | Arapahoe, CO | 2.6 | 75 | |||
| May 18 | 1:30 PM MDT | EF2 | Arapahoe, CO | 4.3 | 200 | |||
| May 18 | 1:40 PM MDT | EF2 | Adams, CO | 4.4 | 400 | |||
| May 18 | 5:03 PM CDT | Unrated | Callahan, TX | 3.0 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 4:05 PM MDT | Unrated | Yuma, CO | 0.0 | 15 | |||
| May 18 | 5:12 PM CDT | EF2 | Cheyenne, KS | 3.9 | 200 | $300,000 | ||
| May 18 | 4:15 PM MDT | Unrated | Sherman, KS | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 5:19 PM CDT | EF2 | Shackelford, TX | 0.8 | 150 | |||
| May 18 | 5:21 PM CDT | EF1 | Hemphill, TX to OK | 1.7 | 75 | $35,000 | ||
| May 18 | 5:35 PM CDT | EF2 | Scott, KS | 11.0 | 460 | $50,000 | ||
| May 18 | 5:37 PM CDT | EF2 | Scott, KS | 10.8 | 150 | |||
| May 18 | 5:41 PM CDT | EF3 | Ellis, OK | 6.0 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| May 18 | 5:56 PM CDT | EF0 | Ellis, OK | 0.2 | 10 | |||
| May 18 | 5:58 PM CDT | EF1 | Ellis, OK | 3.5 | 50 | $15,000 | ||
| May 18 | 6:09 PM CDT | Unrated | Scott, KS | 0.4 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 6:32 PM CDT | EF3 | Gove, KS | 13.3 | 416 | |||
| May 18 | 6:47 PM CDT | EF0 | Eastland, TX | 3.3 | 200 | |||
| May 18 | 6:49 PM CDT | EF0 | Hitchcock, NE | 0.2 | 50 | $80,000 | ||
| May 18 | 6:49 PM CDT | EF3 | Hitchcock, NE | 10.7 | 250 | $575,000 | ||
| May 18 | 7:04 PM CDT | Unrated | Hitchcock, NE | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 7:07 PM CDT | EF3 | Sheridan, KS | 4.2 | 230 | $120,000 | ||
| May 18 | 7:08 PM CDT | EF2 | Sheridan, KS | 0.3 | 20 | $50,000 | ||
| May 18 | 7:21 PM CDT | EF0 | Edwards, KS | 4.2 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 7:36 PM CDT | EF1 | Palo Pinto, TX | 0.4 | 400 | $5,000 | ||
| May 18 | 7:38 PM CDT | EF2 | Edwards, KS | 7.8 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 7:48 PM CDT | EF1 | Palo Pinto, TX | 2.1 | 995 | 4 | $750,000 | |
| May 18 | 6:54 PM MDT | Unrated | Dundy, NE | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 8:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Palo Pinto, TX | 2.6 | 1,000 | |||
| May 18 | 8:07 PM CDT | Unrated | Palo Pinto, TX | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 8:36 PM CDT | EF0 | Parker, TX | 3.1 | 200 | $25,000 | ||
| May 18 | 9:21 PM CDT | EF3 | Comanche, KS | 8.2 | 800 | |||
| May 18 | 9:44 PM CDT | EF3 | Kiowa, KS | 10.4 | 500 | |||
| May 18 | 10:04 PM CDT | EF3 | Kiowa, KS | 15.8 | 500 | |||
| May 18 | 10:09 PM CDT | EF0 | Fillmore, NE | 3.1 | 30 | $100,000 | ||
| May 18 | 10:14 PM CDT | EF1 | Kiowa, KS | 2.8 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 10:26 PM CDT | EF1 | DeSoto, MS | 0.4 | 50 | $800,000 | ||
| May 18 | 10:47 PM CDT | EF3 | Pratt, KS | 11.4 | 500 | |||
| May 18 | 11:09 PM CDT | Unrated | Pratt, KS | 0.4 | 50 | |||
| May 18 | 11:17 PM CDT | EF3 | Pratt, KS | 32.6 | 1,760 | |||
| May 18 | 12:51 AM CDT | Unrated | Howard, NE | 0.0 | 30 |
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.