EF2 Tornado — Dawson, Nebraska

2007-04-20 · near Gothenburg, Dawson, Nebraska

Event narrative

This tornado touched down southwest of Gothenburg and traveled north. It crossed Interstate 80 and passed about 2 miles west of the town of Gothenburg. The twister continued to the north and crossed from Dawson County into Custer County.

Wider weather episode

Scattered thunderstorms developed just west of the Hastings CWA. One storm entered extreme western Dawson County and produced hail and one tornado. The tornado started south of Gothenburg and moved north. It crossed Interstate 80 where several vehicles and semis were blown off the road with several injuries reported, thankfully, none serious. At one farmstead, the twister killed nearly a dozen head of cattle. The tornado damaged or destroyed many outbuildings and farmhouses. The storm survey team rated this tornado as an EF2 based on damage to a farmhouse (FR12) that lost half of its roof and had many windows blown out (DOD6). This would have had an expected wind speed around 114 mph. Many wood utility poles (ETL) were also broken off at their base or snapped in half (DOD4). This would have an expected wind speed of 120 mph. The tornado had a maximum width around 3/4 mile about 5 miles north of Gothenburg. The storm also produced hail along its path in which the largest was softball in size.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.8700, -100.2100)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 28970. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.