TornadoLookup

Home / Nebraska / Antelope

EF2 tornado in Antelope County, Nebraska

Tornado October 4, 2013 · Antelope County, Nebraska

EF2
Rating
6.6 mi
Path length
264 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 264 yards (0.15 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

The tornado developed about 2 miles east, and 6 miles south of the city of Royal. The tornado moved in a nearly due north fashion passing to the east of the city. The tornado impacted several farmsteads during the greater than 6 mile path. Outbuildings, trees and power line damage was common along the path of the tornado.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Royal (42.2460, -98.0920).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 474503. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.