Last week we saw two rounds of severe weather in parts of eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. While the first round of severe weather in the afternoon stayed mostly out of our viewing area and impacted northwestern and north-central Iowa, the sound round of severe weather impacted most of us.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were mainly for 60-70 mph wind gusts and quarter, half dollar, or ping pong ball size hail. However, we did have several tornado warnings issued. After the storms, reports and survey teams from the National Weather Service confirmed that there were four tornadoes in our area that Tuesday.
We had two tornadoes confirmed in Nebraska and two confirmed in Iowa. The first tornado was in Seward County, near Goehner. This was a quick spin up confirmed by a trained storm spotter and video evidence. Thankfully, there was no damage. However, with no damage for the NWS to survey, it will be considered EF-U or EF-Unknown. I've attached the local storm report and a screenshot of the radar imagery at 6:43 pm that Tuesday evening at the approximate time the tornado formed.
The other tornado in Nebraska was near Unadilla in Otoe County. This was another quick tornado, only traveling a tenth of a mile, but was rated EF-1 with peak winds estimated at 100 mph. It caused some tree damage and damage to three homes.
In Iowa, there were two confirmed tornadoes in Harrison County. One tornado was near Missouri Valley. It was rated EF1 with peak winds of 100 mph and traveled 9.6 miles. It caused some tree damage, destroyed a few barns, and did some minor home damage. The second tornado in Harrison County was near Woodbine. It was also rated EF-1 with estimated winds of 90 mph and traveled 2.3 miles. It did mainly tree damage, but also destroyed a shed and caused damage to other farm structures.
These types of quick spin ups are not uncommon when we see these lines of severe storms move through the area, so it’s always important to keep an eye on storms before they get to you and to know what to do to stay safe as the storms move through the area.
