EF1 tornado in Sherman County, Nebraska

The second tornado of the day was first sighted out in a field south of Rockville, then moved north and cross the Middle Loup River. The tornado caused EF1 rated damage to a home and outbuildings just south of town. It then moved north along the east edge of Rockville and damaged trees, a couple of grain bins and outbuildings. It continued to move north roughly along Rockville Road and snapped several power poles. Based upon reports, the tornado likely dissipated in open country about four miles north of town. The EF1 rating and estimated peak wind speed of 105 MPH was assigned based upon the snapped power poles north of town.

On this Friday afternoon, south central Nebraska served as the launching point to what would end up being a significant/destructive regional tornado outbreak that impacted portions of south central and eastern Nebraska, into southwestern and south central Iowa. This event unfolded as a powerful upper trough, along with a surface low/trough, moved into the Central Plains. Locally, a northward-arcing warm front passed through south central and central Nebraska. Dewpoints were generally in the 50s and 60s during the early afternoon hours on April 26th across south central and central Nebraska. Most unstable CAPE was around 1,000 to 3,000 J/kg and wind shear was around 40 knots, setting the stage for tornado development within parts of Buffalo, Sherman and especially Howard and Greeley counties.

Storms already began developing in south central and central Nebraska during the late morning hours. The storms began by producing nickel sized hail in Sherman County just after 12 PM CDT. The first tornado of the day developed around 12:16 PM CDT from a supercell moving across northern Buffalo County into Sherman County and was rated as an EF1. This storm moved northward and split into two storms with the second storm on the right becoming stronger and continuing to move north northeast. These two storms produced a total of six tornadoes in Buffalo, Sherman, Howard, and Greeley Counties. The last tornado of the day developed in Greeley County just after 2 PM CDT and moved northeastward before exiting this local area into Boone County (which is located in the Eastern Nebraska area). The strongest tornado within the south central Nebraska area was rated an EF3, passing very near Elba in Howard County (this was the strongest tornado to strike the 24-county area in nearly 10 years...since EF-3 tornadoes on May 11, 2014). Other storms developed and produced hail. The largest hail was golf ball sized which fell in Howard County around 1:15 PM CDT. Prior to departing the local area, they produced quarter sized hail in Nance County just after 3 PM CDT.