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EF1 tornado in Lincoln County, Nebraska

Tornado March 18, 2012 · Lincoln County, Nebraska

EF1

Rating

11.6 mi

Whole path

150 yd

Path width

Injuries

$1.7M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 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 touched down 5 miles west southwest of North Platte just south of Interstate 80. The tornado moved north where a semi tractor and trailer was destroyed and driver injured. Extensive debris spread north and northwest as the tornado tracked northwest damaging a garage, overturning a center pivot irrigation system, destroying fence line and producing extensive tree damage along a one and a half mile long path before lifting just south of the South Platte river.

The wider storm

A large upper level trough of low pressure emerged onto the Central Plains on March 18th, 2012. Isolated severe thunderstorms developed during the evening hours, where one isolated severe thunderstorm produced several tornadoes from central Lincoln County north into eastern Cherry County. One of the tornadoes produced significant damage near North Platte, in central Lincoln County. Additional damage was reported north in southeast McPherson County in the Ringgold area.

Began near North Platte (41.1153, -100.8614).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 McPherson County EF0 Cherry County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 364384. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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