EF2 Tornado — Boone, Nebraska

2024-04-26 · near Cedar Rapids Arpt, Boone, Nebraska

Event narrative

This Wolbach/Primrose tornado crossed into Boone County along Highway 56 to the southwest of Primrose. The tornado caused minor damage to a home on a farmstead at the county line along with quite a bit of tree damage in the general area. The tornado moved north and appeared to strengthen some as it flipped and tossed several center irrigation pivot systems north of Highway 56. Power poles were snapped and debris was lifted into power lines. As the tornado moved north-northeast, the most significant damage was found about 2 miles southwest of Primrose. A single-family home was extensively damaged, including the three-car garage being totally ripped away along with much of the roof structure. Several outbuildings were damaged or destroyed. Extensive tree damage and numerous power poles were snapped in the area. Tree damage was widespread west of Primrose and one large outbuilding was destroyed. The tornado appeared to slow down and possibly weaken some north of Primrose, but did manage to get moving northeast again after a short time. In its final few miles, the tornado damaged trees and center pivot irrigation systems in several places. Extensive damage to a livestock facility and several snapped power poles was noted about halfway between Petersburg and Primrose. The tornado likely dissipated in open country as it approached Beaver Creek southwest of Petersburg. The widest point of the tornado appeared to occur just to the west and southwest Primrose when the tornado may have been up to 500 yards wide. The average width of this tornado was estimated to be 200 yards. The EF2 rating and estimated maximum wind speed of 130 mph was based on the damage that occurred at the home southwest of Primrose. This tornado started in Greeley County and was on the ground for over one hour along its 27.5 mile path.

Wider weather episode

On the morning of April 26th, a potent negatively-tilted shortwave trough ejected out into the central Plains. Upper air analysis shows a jet streak on the downstream side of this trough with substantial divergence aloft over Nebraska. At the surface, morning cloud cover and drizzle across much of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa quickly gave way to partly cloud skies as a warm front moved north through the area, just after noon. At the same time, thunderstorms initiated along a pacific front/dryline in south-central Nebraska. One supercell produced several tornadoes from south-central Nebraska into Boone County, resulting in an EF-2 tornado just west of Cedar Rapids. A second round of supercells initiated in Jefferson and Saline counties. These long-track supercells produced the worst tornado outbreak the Omaha WFO has seen in 10 years. 5 EF-3 tornadoes were surveyed, with several of these tornadoes just shy of an EF-4 rating. One of these EF-3 tornadoes impacted the northeast side of Lincoln, Nebraska where 70 people were reported trapped in a manufacturing plant that collapsed as the tornado passed. Another long-track EF-3 tornado hit portions of Elkhorn, Bennington and Blair, Nebraska. Eppley Airfield was hit by the third EF-3 tornado of the day, doing damage to aircraft hangars on the southeast side of the airport before hitting homes in far western Pottawattamie County. The last two EF-3 tornadoes of the day both impacted portions of Pottawattamie County. While one remained primarily in rural areas in the central part of the county, the final EF-3 of the day hit the town of Minden, Iowa head-on, resulting in 1 fatality and 3 injuries. This was the only fatality of the entire event. This tornado continued into Shelby County, narrowly missing the towns of Tenant and Harlan. A total of 24 tornadoes were confirmed across both Nebraska and Iowa portions of the Omaha CWA. The strongest tornado was the EF-3 that impacted Elkhorn and Blair, with peak estimated wind speeds at 165 miles per hour.

Along the warm front the day prior, scattered thunderstorms developed along the Kansas-Nebraska border during the evening hours. Most of these storms were sub-severe, however, one thunderstorm produced severe hail in and north of Odell, Nebraska for around ten minutes just before 9 pm CDT.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.5400, -98.2900)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167556. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.