EF2 Tornado — Jefferson, Nebraska

2008-05-29 · near Reynolds, Jefferson, Nebraska

Event narrative

This tornado was a continuation of a long-tracked tornado that started in Jewel county Kansas and tracked into Thayer county Nebraska before crossing into Jefferson county Nebraska. The tornado did EF3 damage in Kansas and EF2 damage in Jefferson county.

In Jefferson county the tornado started 2 miles west and 1 1/4 mile north of Reynolds, knocking over large tree branches, snapping trees and overturning several center pivot irrigation systems. The storm tracked northeast from there continuing to snap wooden power poles and causing additional tree damage as well as farm outbuilding damage. The tornado crossed the Little Blue River 2 3/4 miles northwest of Fairbury before turning east where it attained EF2 strength. There it tore the roof off of a house and destroyed a garage and shed 1 mile west of Highway 15. Heading east from there it hit the Fairbury airport where hangers were damaged. East of the airport, a large barn was destroyed and large trees snapped. The tornado finally lifted about 3 miles east and 3 miles north of Fairbury. From the there the parent thunderstorm continued to produce additional wind damage from eastern Jefferson county into Gage county. In total the tornado caused serious damage to 5 houses in Jefferson county.

Wider weather episode

A warm front lifted north across the region during the afternoon and evening of May 29th followed by a weak cool front passage later that night. As the warm front passed, temperatures warmed into the lower to mid 80s and dewpoint temperatures climbed into the 65 to 70 degree range. The whole system was aided by an intense upper level low pressure area that moved from the eastern Rockies into the northern plains. The combination of the high instability in place, the 2 fronts and the upper level disturbance created conditions that were favorable not only for severe thunderstorms, a few of which were supercells that produced tornadoes, but also areas of very heavy rainfall that produced flash flooding that night and river and stream flooding that lasted a day or two later.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.0749, -97.3876)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 94111. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.