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EF4 tornado in Cuming County, Nebraska

Tornado June 16, 2014 · Cuming County, Nebraska

EF4
Rating
27.3 mi
Whole path
500 yd
Path width
1
Death
$4.2M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Stanton County → Cuming County → Wayne County → Wayne County → Dixon County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 500 yards (0.28 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF4 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF4 is devastating damage: well-built houses levelled, consistent with estimated gusts of 166–200 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

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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Wisner (41.9797, -97.0198).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 514042. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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