EF3 Tornado — Cedar, Nebraska

2014-06-17 · near Coleridge, Cedar, Nebraska

Event narrative

This was the strongest of the tornadoes that the Cedar County supercell produced. This tornado developed to the northwest of Coleridge and moved slowly east southeast just to the north of the city of Coleridge. As the tornado neared 567th Ave the tornado turned to the south along the eastern edge of the city producing some significant structural damage along the eastern side of Coleridge. The tornado continued south until nearing 875th Road where the foward speed further slowed, and the tornado changed to an eastern movement while becoming rain-wrapped. The eastern direction occurred for a half mile before the tornado moved almost due north along 568th Ave while significantly weakening. The most significant damage, which was strong EF3, occurred to the north of Coleridge along the 876th Road. Here, two farm houses were destroyed down to the foundation and trees were snapped and debarked. The total path of the tornado, including all the turns, was 8.24 miles.

Wider weather episode

The warm front that was responsible for the significant tornadoes on the afternoon of the 16th, lifted slightly north on the 17th into far northeast Nebraska. Extreme instability again developed along this boundary given the very warm and humid airmass in place across the region. By late afternoon an isolated supercell thunderstorm developed along this boundary and quickly become severe. This lone supercell produced several tornadoes, 3 of which were strong, as well as large hail and flash flooding, over Cedar County Nebraska over the next 4 hours.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.5371, -97.2563)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 514395. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.