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EF2 tornado in Lincoln County, Nebraska

Tornado March 18, 2012 · Lincoln County, Nebraska

EF2

Rating

11.6 mi

Whole path

50 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 50 yards (0.03 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

A tornado touched down five miles west northwest of North Platte, just south of Platte Valley Road, where a two story barn was destroyed with several outbuildings damaged. The tornado tracked northeast where a field of boards from the barn were driven into the ground, along with other debris. As the tornado tracked northeast, two homes were damaged, a garage had structural damage, and an outbuilding was destroyed. Extensive tree damage occurred before the tornado dissipated five miles northwest of North Platte.

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 (41.1745, -100.8688).

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 364386. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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