EF0 tornado in Webster County, Nebraska

This tornado formed within a line of thunderstorms moving across Webster County. Damage along its seven mile path included minor tree damage at a few locations, an overturned camper, a broken window, and damage to older outbuildings. The tornado was likely embedded in heavy rain and difficult to visually distinguish from the low clouds, rain, and straight-line winds associated with the line of storms. It lifted after doing some minor tree damage along Highway 78 near S Road. The estimated peak wind was 75 MPH.

Potent upper level low brings widespread severe weather to much of the Central Plains, including portions of south central Nebraska, during the afternoon and early evening hours of May 6th. The initial thunderstorms developed in the Norton, KS area between noon and 1PM CDT, then shifted NE into portions of Furnas, Harlan, and Franklin Counties between noon and 3PM. The initial threat with these more discrete cells was hail up to golf ball size. However, as storms transitioned more linear after 3PM along and east of Hwy 281, the primary severe hazard became damaging straight-line winds. A single, brief weak QLCS tornado (EF-0) was also reported near Cowles in Webster County. The leading edge of the line of thunderstorms that posed the damaging wind threat largely shifted east of the GID CWA around or shortly after 6PM CDT. The severe threat persisted through the evening hours for much of eastern Nebraska and Kansas.