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EF2 tornado in Burt County, Nebraska

Tornado May 12, 2023 · Burt County, Nebraska

EF2
Rating
21.7 mi
Whole path
1,150 yd
Path width
2
Injuries

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,150 yards (0.65 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 around 620 PM near Burt County Road H, a little over 2 miles west of US Highway 77. The tornado started moving north northeast and then curved back to due north. As it moved north it gained strength and started destroying outbuildings and trees at various farmsteads, reaching EF-2 strength. By the time the tornado reached Burt County Road K, it became nearly 5/8 of a mile wide. Nearly a half mile span of double-wide wooden electrical transmission poles were snapped north of County Road L. The tornado, which was wrapped in rain, continued trekking to the north, damaging farmstead after farmstead, as well as uprooting and snapping trees. The tornado eventually weakened at 644 PM, 3 miles west of Lyons. Two people were injured by the tornado. One had a tree fall on a shed with the person inside, injuring his head. The other had cuts to the face from flying glass.

The wider storm

A strong low-pressure system which had been slowly moving east off the Rocky Mountains finally progressed into central Nebraska. This left eastern Nebraska in the warm sector as a warm front moved north into the area. The SPC issued an Enhanced Risk for severe weather with a 30% hatched for severe hail. There ended up being 19 confirmed tornadoes (3 EF2, 8 EF1, 4 EF0, 4 EFU). There were numerous hail reports the largest of which was 4.5 inches in Pawnee County. Another 4-inch report was received in Richardson County. Flash flooding was also observed in a few locations.

Began near Oakland (41.7844, -96.5295).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1097236. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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