Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 2026

Unrated tornado, Kimball County, Nebraska, May 30, 2026

Name: Unrated tornado, Kimball County, Nebraska, May 30, 2026
Start: 2026-05-30T23:55:00.000Z
End: 2026-05-30T23:56:00.000Z
Location: Kimball County, Nebraska

This Unrated tornado ran 0.2 miles across Kimball County on May 30, 2026, touching down at 5:55 PM MDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody.

Preliminary. This is NWS CYS's damage survey, filed in the Damage Assessment Toolkit. 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 mph
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.
Unratedthis tornado
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: Unrated, preliminary
Date: May 30, 2026
Touchdown: 5:55 PM MDT (23:55 UTC)
Lifted: 5:56 PM MDT (23:56 UTC)
On the ground: 1 minutes
Path length: 0.2 miles (0.4 km)
Path width: 10 yards (9 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Kimball County
Touchdown point: 41.130, -103.804
Lift-off point: 41.130, -103.800
Surveyed by: NWS CYS
Survey last edited: June 3, 2026
Record number: None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

What the survey found

Emergency Management and storm chaser videos documented a brief tornado. Location is estimated based on radar information. The tornado lasted approximately 30 seconds before dissipating. No damage was reported.

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

The warnings

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 severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:18 UTC and running to 01:23 UTC.

Issued (UTC)	Expired	Product	Office
20:18 UTC	01:23 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	CYS
21:17 UTC	22:00 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS
21:55 UTC	22:30 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS
22:05 UTC	22:30 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS
22:28 UTC	23:15 UTC	Tornado Warning	CYS
22:41 UTC	01:45 UTC	Flood Advisory	CYS
22:44 UTC	23:01 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS
22:52 UTC	23:30 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS
23:18 UTC	00:00 UTC	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	CYS
02:50 UTC	08:45 UTC	Flood Warning	CYS

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:56 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.

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), 00:00Z

0.1 hours after it, 268 km from the path. May 31, 2026.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 2499 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -10 J/kg
Surface CAPE: 3822 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 1248 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 21 kt
0-1 km bulk shear: 6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 32 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 130 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 4.4
0-3 km lapse rate: 8.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Cheyenne radar (KCYS), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:56 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
22:00 UTC	HAIL 1.75	7 S Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Kimball County EM reported golf ball sized hail within accumulating hail, leading to localized flash flooding in rural areas of Kimball County.
22:11 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	7 Ssw Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Kimball County Dispatch reported a funnel cloud beneath a wall cloud that ended up becoming rain-wrapped.
22:25 UTC	TORNADO	10 Sse Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Corrects previous tornado report from 10 SSE Bushnell. Kimball County EM reported an ongoing tornado. Was also indicated via radar imagery. No damage has been reported.
22:25 UTC	TORNADO	10 Sse Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Kimball County EM reported an ongoing tornado with debris. Was also indicated via radar imagery.
22:33 UTC	HAIL 2.75	6.3 Se Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Delayed report of baseball sized hail approximately 6.3 miles southeast of Bushnell. Time was estimated from radar reflectivity. Multiple windows were destroyed.
22:40 UTC	FUNNEL CLOUD	10 Sse Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Photos and videos shared of a funnel cloud.
22:53 UTC	HAIL 2.75	6.3 Se Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Corrects previous hail report from 6.3 SE Bushnell. Delayed report of baseball sized hail approximately 6.3 miles southeast of Bushnell. Time was estimated from radar reflectivity. Multiple windows were destroyed.
22:54 UTC	TSTM WND GST 50	3 Ssw Bushnell	Kimball, NE	PWS measured 50 mph gust.
22:55 UTC	TORNADO	9 Sse Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Corrects previous tornado report from 9 SSE Bushnell. Video confirmation of ground circulation being tilted and stretched into thunderstorm updraft. Tiny condensation funnel attached to cloud base above the ground circul
22:55 UTC	TORNADO	9 Sse Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Video confirmation of ground circulation being tilted and stretched into thunderstorm updraft. Tiny condensation funnel attached to cloud base above the ground circulation.
23:15 UTC	TSTM WND GST 51	4 Ssw Kimball	Kimball, NE	AWOS station KIBM Kimbal Airport.
23:22 UTC	TSTM WND GST 46	9 Ene Harrisburg	Banner, NE	AWOS station K1CW 9 E Harrisburg.
23:30 UTC	TSTM WND GST 58	1 E Dix	Kimball, NE	Mesonet station UP261.
23:43 UTC	TSTM WND GST 47	7 S Dix	Kimball, NE	AWOS station K1KW 6 S Dix.
00:06 UTC	TSTM WND GST 53	3 Wnw Brownson	Cheyenne, NE	Mesonet station UP286 2.9 NW Brownson (UPR).
00:09 UTC	TSTM WND GST 60	4 Nnw Brownson	Cheyenne, NE	Golf ASOS.
00:11 UTC	TSTM WND GST 49	14 W Harrisburg	Banner, NE	AWOS station K1BW 8 NE Albin.
00:55 UTC	TSTM WND GST 55	9 N Dix	Kimball, NE	AWOS station K1FW 9 N Dix.
02:45 UTC	FLOOD	7.3 Se Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Emergency manager reported water over several county roads, with 20 foot draws filled with water.
02:45 UTC	HAIL 2.5	6.3 Se Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Delayed report of around 2.5 inches of precipitation throughout the duration of the storm event near Bushnell.
02:45 UTC	RAIN 2.5	6.3 Se Bushnell	Kimball, NE	Corrects previous hail report from 6.3 SE Bushnell. Delayed report of around 2.5 inches of precipitation throughout the duration of the storm event near Bushnell.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the track Every 2026 tornado in Nebraska Every tornado in Nebraska since 1950 Warnings in force in Nebraska now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 30, 2026

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

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
May 30	4:25 PM MDT	Unrated	Kimball, NE	0.6	10

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.