EF1 Tornado — Dodge, Nebraska
2025-05-19 · near Bay State, Dodge, Nebraska
Event narrative
A tornado developed on the Platte River just west of County Road 3 at 4:29 PM CST. The tornado moved east on the river before coming on the north shore where it damaged some campers and mobile homes, as well as cottonwood and maple trees. This included one very large cottonwood tree which was uprooted and fell on to a home. The life cycle of the tornado was evaluated using time stamped video from storm chasers. The final part of the track was intermittent, and the entire tornado lasted for approximately 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Damage to trees and homes indicated a narrow swath of peak estimated wind speed of 90 to 100 mph.
Wider weather episode
On May 19, 2025, a negatively tilted mid to upper-level trough advancing into the central Plains helped spin up a surface low over eastern Colorado, which then progressed into central Nebraska and gradually deepened. Clearing skies and the erosion of earlier convective debris through the afternoon allowed for modest destabilization, with surface-based CAPE values exceeding 2500 J/kg. This was accompanied by strong deep-layer shear exceeding 50 knots, creating a favorable environment for severe storm development.
Thunderstorms initiated in the late afternoon across two main areas: near the surface low in east-central Nebraska and along a warm front positioned across southeast Nebraska. Initial convection took the form of discrete supercells before evolving into more organized clusters as the evening progressed.
In east-central Nebraska, supercells produced hail as large as 2.75 inches in diameter near Schuyler and damaging wind gusts up to 60 mph in Butler County. One of these storms also spawned an EF-1 tornado in Dodge County, which caused damage to campers, mobile homes, and trees. Meanwhile, in southeast Nebraska, another supercell produced hail up to 1.25 inches in diameter southwest of Pawnee City and a brief, intermittent EF-U tornado that tracked across portions of Pawnee and Richardson counties.
View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.4569, -96.8706)
Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1253940. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.