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EF2 tornado in Phelps County, Nebraska

Tornado May 29, 2008 · Phelps County, Nebraska

EF2
Rating
14.1 mi
Whole path
100 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Phelps County → Buffalo County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado started in northeast Phelps County and crossed into Buffalo County. The tornado did damage a couple of outbuildings and grain silos near the start of the damage path.

The wider storm

A significant severe weather outbreak occurred during the late afternoon and evening of May 29th. Several tornadoes were reported from near Elwood to north of York. Two tornadoes caused damage in the city of Kearney and one occurred just to the south of town. Another tornado damaged homes and power poles near Aurora. Another tornado started in north-central Kansas and entered south-central Nebraska near Hubbell. Very strong winds moved down a portion of Interstate 80 and pushed cars and trucks off of the roadway near Aurora. Other areas of south-central Nebraska received heavy rains and hail. Hail to the size of baseballs was reported near Arapahoe in Furnas County. These storms also produce a lot of rainfall over areas that had fairly wet ground. Several areas of flooding were noted in the Platte and Republican River valleys.

Began near Funk (40.6500, -99.2130).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

8 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF3 Republic CountyEF2 Buffalo CountyEF2 Hamilton CountyEF1 Buffalo CountyEF0 Gosper CountyEF0 Gosper CountyEF0 Hamilton CountyEF0 York County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 109463. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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