Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2026
EF1 tornado, Colfax County, Nebraska, August 13, 2026
This EF1 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Colfax County on August 13, 2026, touching down at 3:04 AM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody.
Preliminary. This is NWS OAX's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit as Leigh 2. The rating, the path and the casualties are the survey's and can change while it is revised. The Storm Prediction Center compiles the official record of 2026 from these surveys and publishes it in the spring of 2027; this page moves to that tornado's permanent address when it does.
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 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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 survey
- Rating, as surveyed
- EF1, preliminary
- Date
- August 13, 2026
- Touchdown
- 3:04 AM CDT (08:04 UTC)
- Lifted
- 3:05 AM CDT (08:05 UTC)
- On the ground
- 1 minutes
- Path length
- 0.6 miles (1.0 km)
- Path width
- 20 yards (18 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Colfax County
- Touchdown point
- 41.697, -97.251
- Lift-off point
- 41.704, -97.245
- Highest wind the damage implies
- 95 mph
- Surveyed by
- NWS OAX
- The office's name for it
- Leigh 2
- Survey last edited
- August 14, 2026
- Record number
- None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.
What the survey found
A short-track tornado touched down on the west side of the Club 91 Golf Course and moved northeast across Road V where concentrated tree damage occurred. The tornado continued across the pond on the north side of the baseball field producing more tree damage before lifting after crossing West Fork Maple Creek.
Written by NWS OAX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.
The damage survey
20 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS OAX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 110 mph.
- Corn flattened, width of approx 60 feet
- 1-3 inch tree limbs snapped
- 4 trees with 1-3 inch limbs snapped
- Heavy tree damage on the north side of the golf course along County Road V.
Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.
The warnings
23 minutes of warning. NWS OAX issued a tornado warning for this county at 07:41 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 08:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 06:31 UTC and running to 12:24 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 06:31 UTC | 12:24 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | OAX |
| 07:34 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX |
| 07:41 UTC | 08:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | OAX |
| 08:02 UTC | 08:30 UTC | Tornado Warning | OAX |
| 08:09 UTC | 09:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | OAX |
| 09:32 UTC | 11:30 UTC | Flood Advisory | OAX |
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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:58 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
8.1 hours before the tornado, 84 km from the path. August 13, 2026.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2691 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -151 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 4373 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1336 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 64 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 129 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 1.5
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.9 K/km
The surface observations
Columbus Municipal (OLU), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 06:05 UTC | 80° 10 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 06:10 UTC | 80° 7 kt | 1008.1 | ||||
| 06:15 UTC | 90° 8 kt | 1008.1 | ||||
| 06:20 UTC | 90° 9 kt | 1007.8 | -RA | |||
| 06:25 UTC | 90° 8 kt | 1008.1 | -RA | |||
| 06:30 UTC | 90° 9 kt | 1008.1 | ||||
| 06:35 UTC | 100° 6 kt | 1008.5 | -RA | |||
| 06:40 UTC | 90° 10 kt | 1008.1 | RA BR | |||
| 06:45 UTC | 90° 12 kt | 1007.8 | -RA BR | |||
| 06:50 UTC | 90° 11 kt | 1007.8 | -RA | |||
| 06:55 UTC | 90° 10 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 06:56 UTC | 75 | 74 | 90° 9 kt | 1007.8 | ||
| 07:00 UTC | 90° 8 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 07:05 UTC | 90° 6 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 07:10 UTC | 80° 7 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 07:15 UTC | 80° 7 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 07:20 UTC | 75.2 | 73.4 | 80° 8 kt | 1007.8 | ||
| 07:20 UTC | 80° 8 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 07:25 UTC | 70° 7 kt | 1007.8 | ||||
| 07:30 UTC | 70° 7 kt | 1007.5 | ||||
| 07:35 UTC | 80° 5 kt | 1007.5 | ||||
| 07:40 UTC | 70° 7 kt | 1007.1 | ||||
| 07:45 UTC | 70° 7 kt | 1007.1 | ||||
| 07:50 UTC | 50° 6 kt | 1007.5 | ||||
| 07:55 UTC | 300° 19 kt | 1009.1 | ||||
| 07:56 UTC | 76 | 75 | 300° 20 kt | 23 | 1009.1 | VCTS |
| 08:03 UTC | 73.4 | 71.6 | 320° 21 kt | 32 | 1009.5 | VCTS |
| 08:05 UTC | 36 | 1009.5 | ||||
| 08:10 UTC | 290° 21 kt | 27 | 1010.2 | +RA BR | ||
| 08:12 UTC | 71.6 | 69.8 | 280° 21 kt | 36 | 1010.2 | +TSRA BR |
| 08:15 UTC | 270° 10 kt | RA BR | ||||
| 08:20 UTC | 310° 13 kt | 1010.2 | RA | |||
| 08:25 UTC | 32 | 1009.1 | +RA BR | |||
| 08:26 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 310° 29 kt | 36 | 1009.1 | +TSRA BR |
| 08:29 UTC | 69.8 | 69.8 | 300° 33 kt | 40 | 1009.8 | +TSRA BR |
| 08:30 UTC | 1010.5 | +RA BR | ||||
| 08:35 UTC | 24 kt | 1010.2 | +RA BR | |||
| 08:39 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 320° 16 kt | 38 | 1010.5 | +TSRA BR |
| 08:40 UTC | 320° 16 kt | 21 | 1010.5 | +RA BR | ||
| 08:43 UTC | 69.8 | 68 | 320° 16 kt | 21 | 1010.2 | +TSRA BR |
| 08:45 UTC | 320° 15 kt | 1010.2 | RA | |||
| 08:50 UTC | 310° 14 kt | 1010.2 | RA | |||
| 08:52 UTC | 69.8 | 66.2 | 320° 15 kt | 20 | 1010.2 | TSRA |
| 08:55 UTC | 320° 16 kt | 21 | 1009.5 | -RA | ||
| 08:56 UTC | 70 | 67 | 320° 18 kt | 21 | 1009.5 | TSRA |
| 09:00 UTC | 330° 15 kt | 1009.1 | RA | |||
| 09:05 UTC | 330° 13 kt | 1009.1 | -RA | |||
| 09:10 UTC | 330° 12 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 09:15 UTC | 330° 13 kt | 1009.8 | -RA | |||
| 09:20 UTC | 340° 13 kt | 1009.8 | -RA | |||
| 09:30 UTC | 350° 12 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 09:35 UTC | 350° 14 kt | 22 | 1009.5 | -RA | ||
| 09:40 UTC | 360° 16 kt | 1009.5 | RA | |||
| 09:45 UTC | 1009.5 | RA | ||||
| 09:50 UTC | 20° 14 kt | 1009.5 | -RA | |||
| 09:55 UTC | 1009.5 | -RA | ||||
| 09:56 UTC | 70 | 68 | 20° 16 kt | 25 | 1009.5 | -TSRA |
| 10:00 UTC | 20° 13 kt | 1009.5 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Omaha radar (KOAX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:03 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:32 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Genoa | Nance, NE | Report of power outages in Genoa. |
| 07:36 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Sse Lindsay | Platte, NE | Delayed report from an NWS Storm Survey. Several large hardwood tree branches down, with thunderstorm wind speeds estimated at 74 mph. Time estimated with radar. |
| 07:38 UTC | TORNADO | 4 Sw Cornlea | Platte, NE | NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated wind speeds of 104 mph. The tornado developed in an open field between 400 Ave and 385 Ave southwest of Cornlea, NE and moved east-northeast. The tornado |
| 07:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 6 S Norfolk | Madison, NE | Semi blown over. Time estimated from radar. |
| 07:50 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Se Humphrey | Platte, NE | NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-0 tornado with maximum estimated wind speeds of 65 mph. The tornado touched down east of Highway 81 to the southeast of Humphrey, NE near 250 Ave and flattened corn in a field and took do |
| 07:52 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | 8 Nnw Newman Grove | Boone, NE | Personal weather station that reports every 15 minutes. Gust occurred between 245 and 3 AM. |
| 07:54 UTC | TSTM WND GST 62 | 1 Ne Platte Center | Platte, NE | Personal weather station. |
| 07:56 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Wsw Leigh | Platte, NE | NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated wind speeds of 110 mph. The tornado touched down west of a cemetery near 130 Ave southwest of Leigh, NE. The tornado did significant tree damage to the ce |
| 08:04 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Sw Leigh | Colfax, NE | Local EM passing along tree and power line damage that has closed Church street. Time estimated from radar data. |
| 08:04 UTC | TORNADO | 1 Sw Leigh | Colfax, NE | NWS storm survey confirmed an EF-1 tornado with maximum estimated wind speeds of 95 mph. The short-track tornado touched down on the west side of the Club 91 Golf Course and moved northeast across Road V where concentrat |
| 08:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Ese Clarkson | Colfax, NE | Delayed report from an NWS Storm Survey. Center pivot overturned and visible damage to a soybean field. Thunderstorm wind speeds estimated at 70 mph. Time estimated with radar. |
| 08:10 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Se Clarkson | Colfax, NE | Delayed report from an NWS Storm Survey. Several large hardwood tree branches down in a grove, with thunderstorm wind speeds estimated at 74 mph. Time estimated with radar. |
| 08:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Howells | Colfax, NE | Several large trees down in town. |
| 08:15 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Stanton | Stanton, NE | Large tree down. Time estimated from radar. |
| 08:15 UTC | TSTM WND GST 63 | Howells | Colfax, NE | |
| 08:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 N Dodge | Cuming, NE | Power lines down. Time estimated based on radar data. |
| 08:25 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Nnw Dodge | Cuming, NE | Delayed report from an NWS Storm Survey. Thunderstorm wind damage to a farm outbuilding, minor home siding damage and several small hardwood tree branches broken. Thunderstorm wind speeds estimated at 60-65 mph. Time est |
| 08:30 UTC | TSTM WND GST 64 | 3 Nne Snyder | Cuming, NE | Personal weather station. |
| 08:40 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sw West Point | Cuming, NE | Power poles snapped. Time estimated based on radar data. |
| 08:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S West Point | Cuming, NE | Power poles snapped. Time estimated based on radar data. |
| 08:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | West Point | Cuming, NE | Several images shared on social media from across West Point showing est. 4 inch tree limbs broken. Time estimated from radar. |
| 08:45 UTC | TSTM WND GST 77 | 4 Se West Point | Cuming, NE | Damage to buildings, trees, and crops. |
| 08:48 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 E West Point | Cuming, NE | Power poles snapped. Time estimated based on radar data. |
| 08:48 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 5 Wnw Uehling | Cuming, NE | Power poles snapped. Time estimated based on radar data. |
| 10:20 UTC | FLOOD | 3 Wnw Beemer | Cuming, NE | Water and mud on highway 275. Traffic is slowed. |
| 10:20 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 3 Wnw Beemer | Cuming, NE | Corrects previous flood report from 3 WNW Beemer. Water and mud on highway 275. Traffic is slowed. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 13, 2026
5 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.
What this means
Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.
Sources
NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.