EF3 Tornado — Lancaster, Nebraska

2024-04-26 · near Havelock, Lancaster, Nebraska

Event narrative

This tornado touched down on the northeast side of Lincoln near the intersection of Havelock Ave and 84th Street causing damage to a business and a large transmission line south of Havelock Ave. The tornado moved northeast through agricultural fields, snapping power poles and large trees while increasing in strength. The tornado hit a manufacturing plant at 98th Street and Highway 6 where 70 employees were sheltered. The plant received EF-3 damage. There was a complete failure of the roof and 3 walls of the plant. Employee cars sustained varying damage, with the worst being thrown at least 75-100 yards. Tree trunks were snapped northeast of this location at a nearby business which sustained roof and siding damage.

The tornado quickly crossed 98th Street and Highway 6 where a BNSF train locomotive took a direct hit, derailing numerous cars. The tornado continued northeast across open fields, crossing I-80 and eventually Salt Creek. There was substantial tree damage along the path and along Salt Creek as well as deposited roof debris from the manufacturing plant.

Satellite and video analysis indicate that this tornado ended almost due west of Waverly, with another separate tornado developing less than a mile to the west-northwest.

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 → (40.8575, -96.6121)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1167564. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.