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EF2 tornado in Dawson County, Nebraska

Tornado April 20, 2007 · Dawson County, Nebraska

EF2
Rating
18.9 mi
Whole path
1,320 yd
Path width
9
Injuries
$2.6M
Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,320 yards (0.75 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Gothenburg (40.8700, -100.2100).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 28970. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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