EF0 tornado in Platte County, Nebraska

A tornado began just west of 190th Avenue and about a half mile north of 445th Street where it flipped a cattle shed. The tornado then tracked toward the northwest, where it impacted another farm, flipping over a small outbuilding and removing roofing material of another outbuilding. A large cedar tree was also split down the middle. From this point, the tornado tracked north and then eventually east. Another farm was impacted near 190th Avenue and 475th Street where a detached garage had the roof removed and walls collapsed. Another cattle shed was overturned near the endpoint of the tornado near 475th Street and 182nd Avenue. There were several videos of this tornado which indicate an interesting evolution. It seemed to begin as the parent storm ingested rotation from a weak frontal boundary extending southeast of the storm, then pulled the tornado northwest closer to the storm updraft, and then eventually it turned to move northeast in the same direction as the storm and eventually pushed a bit more toward the east as a cool gust pushed out and dissipated the tornado. While the funnel cloud was rather wide at times, the actual contact with the ground was quite narrow, as evidenced by the narrow damage track.

At midnight on the 16th, non-severe thunderstorms were ongoing across portions of northeast Nebraska and western Iowa. With these storms being rooted in a nearly stationary boundary co-located with the exit region of a low-level jet, this area saw prolonged periods of moderate to heavy rain. This resulted in isolated instances of flash flooding, especially for rural portions of western Wayne County where several roads were reported under water.

By 4 am, A round of strong to severe thunderstorms entered eastern Nebraska from the west and south. These storms were co-located with a tongue of enhanced instability and low-level shear as the surface low occluded in central Nebraska. Scattered instances of damaging wind and continued isolated flooding were reported through the early morning hours.

While the main round of thunderstorms continued east into Iowa and Missouri by late morning, continued redevelopment of thunderstorms persisted through the afternoon hours across portions of northeast Nebraska. This resulted from forcing for ascent and steep lapse rates associated with the cut-off low lingering in central Nebraska. Just before noon through the early afternoon hours on the 16th, the Omaha-Valley NWS received reports of funnel clouds and brief spin-up tornadoes associated with these storms. NWS damage surveys concluded that there were 4 EF-0 tornadoes, two in Platte County and two in Colfax County. Scattered showers and storms lingered across the area through the evening of the 16th as the low-pressure system weakened and slowly moved northeast into the upper Midwest.