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EF2 tornado in Cedar County, Nebraska

Tornado June 17, 2014 · Cedar County, Nebraska

EF2
Rating
5.3 mi
Path length
850 yd
Path width
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 850 yards (0.48 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

This was the final tornado in the Cedar County event. This tornado initially moved southwest while increasing in intensity and width. The tornado produced the most significant damage as it turned south along 573rd Ave where the tornado impacted a farm where outbuildings were completely destroyed. The tornado continued south crossing United States Highway 20. The tornado started to turn southeast about 1.5 miles northeast of Laurel. The tornado continued southeast producing mainly tree and power line damage before crossing into Dixon County near 869th Road. The complete track of the tornado was 8.04 miles.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Laurel (42.4988, -97.0407).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 514401. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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