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EF3 tornado in Cherry County, Nebraska

Tornado August 11, 2011 · Cherry County, Nebraska

EF3
Rating
0.5 mi
Path length
900 yd
Path width
$15K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 900 yards (0.51 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

A tornado developed five miles south-southeast of Wood Lake and traveled to the south. It was on the ground for approximately 20 minutes and was up to a maximum of a half mile wide with maximum winds of 140 m.p.h. The tornado caused damage to two tree groves. One tree was debarked, uprooted, and moved while several other trees were uprooted. Additionally, a windmill was destroyed and another three were damaged; a steel culvert from Plum Creek washed out and was broken and displaced three-quarters a mile downstream. Also, two miles of barb wire fencing was destroyed.

The wider storm

Severe thunderstorms developed in north central Nebraska on the afternoon of August 11th in the vicinity of a warm front draped from southwest South Dakota into northeast Nebraska. The storms quickly became tornadic with six tornados occurring by the end of the evening. The largest tornado was classified as an EF3 and touched down over southeast Cherry county and traveled into Brown county before lifting. The other tornadoes produced minimal damage and were rated EF0's and EF1's. Large hail also impacted these areas, with the largest size being tennis ball size.

Began near Wood Lake (42.5634, -100.2090).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

6 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 335920. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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