EF0 tornado in Fillmore County, Nebraska

This short path tornado rapidly developed near the Salem Mennonite Church located southeast of Shickley, as seen by minor damage to the church grounds and to nearby center irrigation pivot systems. The tornado traveled north along or just west of Road 9, causing minor tree damage before lifting a mile or so north of Highway 74. The peak wind was estimated to be 70 MPH, based on the combination of the tree and pivot damage.

Two separate rounds of severe weather impacted south central Nebraska on this day and brought a variety of severe weather.

The first round of thunderstorms produced a combination of wind and hail along with the first flooding rains of the season. The flooding rain was thanks to a combination of the slow movement and the intense rainfall rates over the same area. Though there was plenty of water to go around, the flooding was largely confined to Nuckolls and Webster where several county roads sustained water damage. Water was flowing over a part of Highway 78 near the Kansas border for a time south of Guide Rock. While the rain was needed, the 4-6' rain amounts were too much for many small creeks and streams to handle. Once the storm thunderstorms did finally move, a bowing line segment in southwest Fillmore county produced a brief tornado southeast of Shickley. The EF0 rated tornado quickly developed and was on the ground for only a few minutes. Damage was minor, and mostly limited to trees and center pivot irrigation systems. Peak wind speed was estimated at 70 mph.

A second round of thunderstorms developed in central Nebraska during the evening and was more closely aligned to the upper level low pressure system in northeast Wyoming. The primary impact from these thunderstorms were wind gusts in the 60-mph range. However, as the line of storms started to bow north of Grand Island, a volunteer fireman from Elba captured video of a brief tornado southeast of his location in central Howard county. No damage was reported with either the straight line winds or the brief tornado.

Meteorologically speaking, an upper level low pressure system was located in northeast Wyoming. A shortwave moved across Kansas and into south central Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening hours. Surface low pressure in northwest Kansas had weakened some, but there was still ample south and southeast flow to transport low level moisture north resulting in surface dewpoints in the middle 60s as far north as north central Kansas. Though the deeper low-level moisture and surface instability was located in southern Kansas, strong frontogeneses in the 850-700 mb layer ahead of the short wave sparked a round of storms in the afternoon. Steep mid-level lapses (8C/KM) and strong effective bulk shear of 60 knots was quite favorable for rapid thunderstorm development. Closer to the instability axis near the Kansas/Nebraska border, large hail from elevated thunderstorms was the primary hazard initially, but slightly drier air to the north (sub 60-degree surface dewpoints) supported a localized wind damage risk with a second round of thunderstorms even after dark. Though the risk for tornadoes was greater to the south, strong low-level wind shear and an eventual transition to bowing line segments did become more favorable for brief tornadoes to form for a time.