EF4 Tornado — Wayne, Nebraska

2013-10-04 · near Altona, Wayne, Nebraska

Event narrative

This violent tornado started 8 miles southwest of Wayne, Nebraska and flattened corn crops and tore off large limbs of some trees. Gaining strength as it headed northeast, the tornado struct a farmstead about 4.5 miles southwest of Wayne. Here barns and sheds were severely damaged or destroyed. The tornado became very wide at this point, nearly 1.25 miles wide. About 2 miles south of Wayne the tornado severely damaged a farmstead and then cased strong EF-3 damage to two homes along highway 15. The tornado then missed the downtown and residential district of Wayne and severely damaged a softball complex on the southeast side of town.

The most significant damage occurred in the industrial part area on the east side of Wayne. Numerous metal building structures, some of them quiet large, sustained serious damage or were mangled into rubble. It was here the tornado was rated EF-3 with a couple of small pockets of low-end EF-4 damage. The tornado then crossed highway 35 and impacted the Wayne Municipal Airport. Two hangers were flattened. Some private aircraft were tumbled and ripped up. The automated weather observing station at the airport was also torn up. Continuing northeast, the tornado struck another farmstead and caused EF-2 damage to a home. Damage continued northeast at it tracked into Dixon County. The damage in the Wayne area was estimated at $50 million.

Wider weather episode

The same powerful storm system that produced severe weather across eastern Nebraska on October 3rd remain in the area on the 4th. A strong area of low pressure moved from eastern Colorado into southern South Dakota during the day. As this occurred, a dry line was sweeping across central and into eastern Nebraska. A warm front continued to lift north into northeast Nebraska and western Iowa by late afternoon. With unseasonably warm and moist air in the region the atmosphere became strongly unstable. This instability coupled with a strong wind field associated with the powerful storm system and created and environment favorable for significant severe weather. Supercells developed near the intersection of the dry line and warm front over northeast Nebraska during the afternoon and tracked northeast. The supercells were responsible for large hail, damaging winds, and significant tornadoes. Other isolated thunderstorms developed south along the dry line into western Iowa producing very large hail and damaging winds during the evening of the 4th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.1280, -97.0770)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 472670. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.