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Coleridge Tornado June 2003 |
Public Information Statement,
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000 ABUS34 KOMA 250309 PNSOMA PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY 1005 PM CDT TUE JUN 24 2003 ...PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE COLERIDGE NEBRASKA TORNADO... A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TEAM CONDUCTED A DAMAGE SURVEY OF THE COLERIDGE NEBRASKA TORNADO. THE SURVEY IS INCOMPLETE AND WILL BE COMPLETED ON WEDNESDAY. THE AREA COMPLETED ON TUESDAY WAS FROM THE TOWN OF COLERIDGE EASTWARD. IN COLERIDGE...THE TORNADO DOWNED MANY TREES ON THE WEST SIDE OF TOWN. A COUPLE LARGE GRAIN STORAGE BINS WERE ALSO DESTROYED. A CONSTRUCTION BUSINESS WAS DESTROYED ON THE NORTH WEST SIDE OF TOWN. THE STORM MOVED NORTHEAST AND WIDENED TO ABOUT 1/4 MILE WIDE AND DESTROYED MANY CROPS BEFORE HITTING A LARGE HOG FARM ABOUT 3 MILES EAST AND ONE MILE NORTH OF COLERIDGE. THIS IS WHERE THERE WAS ONE FATALITY. THE TORNADO ALSO PICKED UP CATTLE AND DEPOSITED THEM NEARLY A MILE AWAY. CONTINUING TO WIDEN TO AROUND 3/4 OF A MILE...THE TORNADO REACHED ITS MAXIMUM INTENSITY...F4 ON THE FUJITA DAMAGE SCALE. AN F4 TORNADO HAS WINDS BETWEEN 207 TO 260 MPH. NUMEROUS VEHICLES WERE TOSSED AT THIS LOCATION. THE COMPLETE FARMSTEAD WAS FLATTENED AND TREES WERE STRIPPED AND DEBARKED. THE TORNADO THEN HIT A FARMSTEAD NEAR HIGHWAY 15 ...6 MILES EAST OF COLERIDGE. THE HOME WAS SHIFTED OFF ITS FOUNDATION BY 6 FEET. THE TORNADO THEN TURNED DIRECTION TO THE SOUTHEAST ...STRIKING ANOTHER FARMSTEAD AND DAMAGING TREES AND CROPS BEFORE DIMINISHING. BRIAN E. SMITH WARNING COORDINATION METEOROLOGIST NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NE |
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Several Damage Photos - Click Here |
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Story in the Omaha World Herald |
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Published Thursday June 26 Omaha World Herald 2003 Coleridge, Neb., tornado rated an F4 BY PAUL HAMMEL WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER A tornado that killed a Coleridge, Neb., farmer and damaged nearly a dozen farmsteads on Monday night packed winds of up to 260 miles per hour and tossed cattle nearly a mile. That's the assessment of Brian Smith, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Valley, Neb., who visited Coleridge on Tuesday. Smith rated the tornado as an F4 on the Fujita damage scale, which means a tornado that had winds between 207 and 260 mph. The scale rates tornadoes from 0 to 5. An F5 tornado packs winds of between 261 and 318 mph with automobile-size material being thrown farther than 100 meters. A Coleridge hog farmer, Curtis Papenhausen, 70, was killed in a shed that collapsed as he tried to restore electricity to his hog farm during the storm. A tornado on Sunday night that devastated Deshler, Neb., was rated an F2 by the weather service. An F2 has winds of 113 to 157 mph. The 1998 tornado that killed six people, injured several hundred others and demolished 90 percent of Spencer, S.D., was rated F4, as were the tornado that struck Omaha in May 1975, killing three people, and the seven strong tornadoes that hit Grand Island in June 1980, killing five people. Nebraska's last F5 tornado struck May 5, 1964, near Bradshaw, killing two people and destroying at least a dozen farms. |
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