Monday's severe weather did not impact everyone, as those in Omaha are acutely aware, but where storms did strike, they were quite intense. One storm developed over Grand Island and dropped large hail over Columbus, Schuyler, and Dodge County.
This storm was also responsible for producing an EF-1 tornado near North Bend. This tornado, which reached wind speeds up to 100 mph, damaged campers at McGinns Lake, where one person received minor injuries. The tornado lifted before reaching North Bend proper.
To the south, a storm developed in northern Kansas and moved into southeast Nebraska. Alongside 1-2" hail, a weak tornado tracked two miles southeast of Du Bois in Pawnee County. Despite video evidence of the tornado occurring, no damage was found. Therefore, the National Weather Service rated the tornado an EF-Unknown.
The two tornadoes are now the 7th and 8th tornadoes to occur in our viewing area in 2025. On average, our viewing area gets about 16 tornadoes a year. However, this is *much* lower than past years. In 2022, we had 9 by May 20. In 2023, by this time, we had 22 tornadoes.
2024 takes the cake, when we had 39 tornadoes in the same span! This time last year, the Greenfield tornado outbreak & May 24 derecho would add another 31 tornadoes, bringing our total to 70!
