EF0 tornado, Stanton, Nebraska, June 29, 2026

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, as surveyed

EF0, preliminary

Date

June 29, 2026

Touchdown

12:16 AM CDT (05:16 UTC)

Lifted

12:17 AM CDT (05:17 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

Stanton County

Touchdown point

42.075, -97.268

Lift-off point

42.081, -97.249

Highest wind the damage implies

85 mph

Surveyed by

NWS OAX

Survey last edited

July 7, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

Overhead imagery provided by local emergency management assisted in identifying a short tornado track on the north edge of a larger intense downburst. The evidence of rotation in the damage begins in a corn field near 845 Rd, impacting a farm where it destroyed a barn, damaged several trees and a grain bin, and removed shingles from the roof of a home. The tornado continued across a pasture before damaging several trees along 564 road. The tornado damage evidence appears to end just east of 564 Rd while the broad downburst continues to cause straight-line wind damage for several miles to the east northeast.

Written by NWS OAX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

6 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 85 mph.

• A barn slid off of its foundation
• Several large limbs broken. Overhead photography indicates a convergent damage pattern.
• Damage path through corn field with signs of convergent damage in the corn on the northern edge of the path.
• Several trees damaged at this location with some convergent damage noted in overhead imagery. The pasture to the southwest also showed evidence of a track connected to the damage points to the southwest.

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

During the evening of June 29, 2026, into the early morning hours of June 30, severe thunderstorms moved across northern and eastern Nebraska, producing hail, damaging wind gusts, and a brief tornado. Storms developed along a cold front within a highly unstable air mass characterized by MLCAPE values exceeding 3,500 J/kg, DCAPE values over 1,500 J/kg, and steep lapse rates.||Two distinct rounds of severe weather impacted the area. The first round targeted far northeast Nebraska���primarily Knox and Cedar counties���between 5:00 PM and 8:00 PM CST. This initial round was dominated by a supercell that produced measured wind gusts up to 60 mph and hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter.||A second round of storms developed in east-central Nebraska later in the evening and tracked northeastward. This activity quickly consolidated into a severe convective cluster that produced damaging winds, hail, and a brief tornado as it passed through Boone, Madison, Stanton, and Wayne counties. The complex intensified rapidly upon entering Madison County and the Norfolk area, producing widespread wind gusts of 60 to 80 mph. A personal weather station 2 miles southeast of Hadar recorded a peak gust of 101 mph, which destroyed a well-anchored carport. Multiple hail reports between 1.00 and 2.00 inches in diameter were also received. A brief, EF-0 tornado was also confirmed in Stanton County, with maximum estimated wind speeds of 85 mph. The system continued northeast into the overnight hours, producing severe wind gusts into northwest Iowa and southern Minnesota.

Overhead imagery provided by local emergency management assisted in identifying a short tornado track on the north edge of a larger intense downburst. The evidence of rotation in the damage begins in a corn field near 845 Rd, impacting a farm where it destroyed a barn, damaged several trees and a grain bin, and removed shingles from the roof of a home. The tornado continued across a pasture before damaging several trees along 564 road. The tornado damage evidence appears to end just east of 564 Rd while the broad downburst continues to cause straight-line wind damage for several miles to the east northeast. Maximum wind speeds were estimated at 85 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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 04:55 UTC and running to 08:00 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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 00:51 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), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:13 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 2026 tornado in NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

3 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

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.

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.