EF4 Tornado — Cuming, Nebraska

2014-06-16 · near Wisner, Cuming, Nebraska

Event narrative

As the tornado continued from Stanton County into Cuming county it increased in size and intensity. The tornado crossed the Elkhorn River about 3 miles west of Wisner and then crossed Highway 275 where significant damage was done to a cattle ranch. Over 300 head of cattle were lost here, as well as numerous outbuildings. The tornado continued to the north northeast, running nearly parallel to the Pilger tornado for a time impacting several farmsteads along 4 1/2 Road. As the tornado neared X Road along 4 1/2 Road it directly impacted two farmsteads where violent damage was done including completely destroying two homes down to the foundation, destroying outbuildings, lofting vehicles, and debarking trees. A 74-year-old Clarkson, Nebraska resident was killed when the vehicle he was driving was flipped by the tornado. The tornado crossed in front of the Pilger tornado and continued to the north into Wayne County about 7.25 miles north northwest of Wisner, NE.

Wider weather episode

During the early morning hours of June 16th a warm, humid and unstable airmass rapidly returned to eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. As this air returned to the region, scattered thunderstorms developed during the early morning hours and continued into early afternoon. These thunderstorms were responsible for mainly large hail, some of which was very large. These morning thunderstorms reinforced a warm front across eastern Nebraska during the afternoon. Extreme instability developed along this warm front and allowed for isolated thunderstorm development by mid afternoon, which quickly become severe. A single supercell thunderstorm went on to produce 4 violent tornadoes over the next 2 hours. Other strong and severe thunderstorms moved into northeast Nebraska in the evening and continued into the early morning hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.9797, -97.0198)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 514042. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.