EF2 tornado in Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska

Tornado June 23, 2023 · Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska

EF2

Rating

3.7 mi

Whole path

700 yd

Path width

$135K

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 700 yards (0.40 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

A tornado tracked approximately 1 to 3 miles ENE of Gering, causing significant damage to a structure with debris scattered up to 1/2 mile to the west, including hazardous material. Vehicles on the property were thrown 50 feet. A small wooden trailer was thrown 1/4 mile away. Additionally, irrigation pivots were rolled numerous times and power lines were broken along Highway 26. Damage was consistent with an EF-2 tornado. Confirmed by official NWS Storm Survey.

The wider storm

The most notable storm of the day was an intense, long-lived, cyclic tornadic supercell which significantly impacted Scotts Bluff and Morrill Counties during the early evening hours. This storm originated in the central Laramie Range of Wyoming approximately 50 miles to the west around 3 to 4 hours prior to reaching western Nebraska, producing several confirmed tornadoes along its path. Environmental conditions across Scotts Bluff County continued to support the potential for tornadoes, with abundant moisture pooling in the Platte River Valley and favorable east-to-southeast winds near the surface with a strong southwesterly jet stream aloft. The supercell produced 7 additional confirmed tornadoes (6 in Scotts Bluff County and 1 in Morrill County), most notably including an EF-2 tornado which tracked approximately 1-3 miles ENE of Gering between 7:38 PM and 7:45 PM MDT. A Tornado Emergency was in effect for Gering and Scottsbluff from 7:31 PM until 8:00 PM MDT, which was the first ever issuance of this product from the NWS in Cheyenne. Numerous instances of baseball to softball sized hail occurred across Scotts Bluff County including the city of Scottsbluff. A second intense supercell developed and tracked across Scotts Bluff County in the wake of the first tornadic storm, producing a second swath of very large (baseball sized) hail over the same area. In addition to this primary focus area for intense storms, other isolated storms also brought quarter sized hail, 60 MPH wind gusts to portions of the western Nebraska Panhandle.

Began near Gering (41.8200, -103.6300).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EFU Scotts Bluff County EFU Scotts Bluff County EFU Scotts Bluff County EFU Scotts Bluff County EFU Morrill County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1098736. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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