EF3 Tornado — Knox, Nebraska

2013-10-04 · near Creighton, Knox, Nebraska

Event narrative

This EF3 tornado touched down approximately 2 miles southeast of Creighton. The tornado was initially weak with damage confined to softwood trees, irrigation systems, and siding and shingle damage. The tornado initially traveled north crossing highway 59 less than 1 mile to the east of the city of Creighton. The tornado made a direct impact to the Creighton Municipal Airport where 3 of the hangers received roof, garage and siding damage. There was also a storage building that lost a roof. The airport beacon was also lost during the tornado. Just to the south of the airport a building housing antique trackers was completely destroyed and was moved for 3 city blocks. The tornado then took a track to the northwest where a 10000 bushel grain bin was completely destroyed. There were also 5 other irrigation systems where destroyed as well as power poles snapped at their base. The tornado ended 1 mile north of Bazile Mills.

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 → (42.4339, -97.8817)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 473017. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.