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EF3 tornado in Lincoln County, Nebraska

Tornado April 20, 2007 · Lincoln County, Nebraska

EF3

Rating

15.7 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

Injuries

$420K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Frontier County → Lincoln County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado formed 4 miles southeast of Moorefield in Frontier County and entered Lincoln County about 23 miles south southeast of Brady at 8:25 PM CST. The tornadic supercell continued for another 12 miles before dissipating 14 miles south of Brady at 8:46 PM CST. In addition to power poles and trees being snapped off, the tornado hit 2 farmsteads. At the first farmstead, it completely destroyed one large storage building and took off the roof and northeast exterior wall of the home. At the farmstead across the road, the tornado completely destroyed an unanchored farm house and 3 storage sheds. The 2 occupants in the home were on the main floor of the home when the tornado hit and were carried with the debris 50 feet. The tornado was rated F2 in Frontier County and F3 in Lincoln County.

The wider storm

Supercells developed rapidly and became tornadic across southwest Nebraska during the evening of April 20th.

Began near Brady (40.6966, -100.2770).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Custer County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 24016. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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