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EF3 tornado in Frontier County, Nebraska

Tornado May 17, 2019 · Frontier County, Nebraska

EF3
Rating
2.1 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
$100K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF3 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF3 is severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, consistent with estimated gusts of 136–165 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 touched down 8 miles northeast of Stockville. It traveled northeast striking a farmstead 10 miles northeast of Stockville. Two buildings were destroyed with extensive damage to multiple structures at this farmstead.

The wider storm

A strong upper level trough of low pressure lifted across the central Rockies during the late afternoon of May 17th. As this feature approached a stalled out frontal boundary, which was anchored along the Kansas and Nebraska border, thunderstorms developed and quickly became severe as they lifted north. A lone supercell produced multiple tornadoes while moving northeast through Frontier County. Two farms sustained damage with the Johnson's farm sustaining damage to every building with the tornado rated an EF-3. As storms moved northeast large hail and damaging winds were reported.

Began near Stockville (40.6119, -100.2722).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 822277. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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