Tornadoes:

Tornado #1 - Stanton, NE  Stanton County Date June 16, 2014 Time (Local) 3:42-4:11 pm CDT EF Rating EF4 Est. Peak Winds N/A Path Length 12.21 miles Max Width 400 Injuries/Deaths None/None Summary: This tornado developed to the southwest of the tow of Stanton and traveled northeast. The tornado produced limited damage until crossing the Elkhorn River. As it moved across Highway 24 the tornado impacted two farmsteads where considerable damage occurred. The tornado continued to intensify as it moved to the north of Stanton where a farmstead was completely destroyed. The tornado reached it maximum intensity of it approached Highway 275 where a number of farmsteads were completely destroyed, farm machinery was thrown a considerable distance, and  trees were sheared off near the base. The tornado remained intense to the north of Highway 275 where additional farmsteads were destroyed before narrowing and dissipating.  Track Map

Tornado #2 - Pilger, NE  Stanton, Cuming, and Wayne Counties Date June 16, 2014 Time (Local) 4:00-4:39 pm CDT EF Rating EF4 Est. Peak Winds N/A Path Length 18.41 miles Max Width 500 yards Injuries/Deaths 20 Injuries/1 Death Summary: The Pilger tornado was the most intense of the family of tornadoes produced by the supercell. This tornado developed about 6 miles southwest of the town of Pilger and moved northeast directly striking the town. The tornado initially narrow and relatively weak significantly intensified as it neared the Elkhorn River and moved into town. The tornado cut a path through town destroying numerous homes and businesses. The tornado was responsible for 1 fatality in the town of Pilger and several injuries before moving northeast and weakening. As a weakening period, the tornado again intensified producing additional violent damage 4 miles northeast of Pilger. The tornado then narrowed, weakened and turned east wrapping around the developing Wakefield tornado before dissipating.    Track Map

Tornado #3 - Pilger East  Stanton, Cuming and Wayne Counties Date June 16, 2014 Time (Local) 4:13-4:32 pm CDT EF Rating EF4 Est. Peak Winds N/A Path Length 11.84 miles Max Width 500 yards Injuries/Deaths 0 Injuries/1 Death Summary: This tornado developed 2 miles southeast of Pilger as the tornado that impacted Pilger was ongoing. This tornado did not impact the town of Pilger itself, but this tornado and the Pilger tornado had parallel tracks for several miles to the northeast of the town of Pilger. This tornado reached maximum intensity 3.5 miles north of Highway 275 where 3 farmsteads were completely destroyed. This tornado actually moved in front of the Pilger tornado as it turned north, narrowed and dissipated.  Track Map

Tornado #4 - Wakefield  Wayne and Dixon Counties Date June 16, 2014 Time (Local) 4:40-5:08 pm CDT EF Rating EF4 Est. Peak Winds N/A Path Length 16.22 Max Width 530 yards Injuries/Deaths None/None Summary: This was the final violent tornado produced by the supercell. This tornado developed about 10 miles south of the town of Wakefield and traveled nearly due north through its lifespan. The tornado reached maximum intensity producing violent damage about 5 miles south southeast of the town of Wakefield where 3 farmsteads were completely destroyed. The tornado continued to the north of Wakefield crossing Highway 9 before narrowing and dissipating.  Track Map

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph

Photos:

Tornado and Damage Imagery

Pilger and Pilger east Tornado (Trent Bosler)	Pilger Tornado Weakening (Trent Bosler)	Pilger and New Wakefield Tornado (Trent Bosler)	Aerial View of Pilger (NE State Patrol)
Pilger School (NWS)	Destroyed Home in Pilger  (NWS)	Damage in Pilger  (NWS)	Damage in Pilger  (NWS)
Wakefield Tornado Damage (NWS)	Wakefield Tornado Damage (NWS)	Pilger East Tornado Damage (NWS)	Pilger East Tornado Damage (NWS)
Destroyed Truck from Stanton Tornado (NWS)	Destroyed Farmstead from Stanton Tornado (NWS)	Destroyed Farmstead from Stanton Tornado (NWS)

Radar:

Images from each of the violent tornadoes associated with the intense supercell on June 16, 2014 

Radar Loop 1941-2221 UTC	2053 UTC 4-panel of reflectivity, storm-relative velocity, differential reflectivity, and correlation coefficient for the Stanton, NE tornado	2115 UTC 4-panel of reflectivity, storm-relative velocity, differential reflectivity, and correlation coefficient for the Pilger, NE tornado	2121 UTC 4-panel of reflectivity, storm-relative velocity, differential reflectivity, and correlation coefficient for the twin tornadoes
2153 UTC 4-panel of reflectivity, storm-relative velocity, differential reflectivity, and correlation coefficient for the Wakefield, NE tornado

Storm Reports

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE OMAHA/VALLEY NEBRASKA
1147 PM CDT MON JUN 16 2014

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0316 PM     HAIL             MADISON                 41.83N 97.46W 
06/16/2014  E0.75 INCH       MADISON            NE   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

0316 PM     HAIL             1 ESE MADISON           41.82N 97.44W 
06/16/2014  M1.00 INCH       MADISON            NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0340 PM     TORNADO          8 S NORFOLK             41.92N 97.42W 
06/16/2014                   MADISON            NE   STORM CHASER    

            TORNADO WAS ON THE GROUND 338 PM TO 340 PM NEAR THE 
            JUNCTION OF HIGHWAY 81 AND 833 ROAD. THEN LIFTED. 

0343 PM     TORNADO          2 SW STANTON            41.93N 97.25W 
06/16/2014                   STANTON            NE   LAW ENFORCEMENT 

0401 PM     TORNADO          STANTON                 41.95N 97.22W 
06/16/2014                   STANTON            NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

            HOME DESTROYED

0406 PM     TORNADO          5 NNW STANTON           41.04N 97.21W 
06/16/2014                   SEWARD             NE   STORM CHASER    

            HOME DESTROYED APPROXIMATELY 5 TO 6 MILES NORTH NORTHWEST
            OF STANTON. STORM CHASER ALSO REPORTED TORNADO MOVING 
            ACROSS HIGHWAY 275 EAST OF NORFOLK. LOCATION CORRECTED. 

0416 PM     TORNADO          4 W WISNER              41.99N 96.99W 
06/16/2014                   CUMING             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0444 PM     TORNADO          5 W PENDER              42.11N 96.81W 
06/16/2014                   THURSTON           NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0446 PM     TORNADO          5 E BEEMER              41.93N 96.71W 
06/16/2014                   CUMING             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0530 PM     HAIL             WINNEBAGO               42.24N 96.47W 
06/16/2014  E0.88 INCH       THURSTON           NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

            LATE REPORT.

0818 PM     HAIL             OSMOND                  42.36N 97.60W 
06/16/2014  E1.00 INCH       PIERCE             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

            PEA TO QUARTER SIZE HAIL LASTED A FEW MINUTES.

0830 PM     HAIL             HARTINGTON              42.62N 97.26W 
06/16/2014  E1.00 INCH       CEDAR              NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0910 PM     HAIL             LAUREL                  42.43N 97.09W 
06/16/2014  E1.00 INCH       CEDAR              NE   TRAINED SPOTTER 

0929 PM     HAIL             ELGIN                   41.98N 98.08W 
06/16/2014  E0.88 INCH       ANTELOPE           NE   CO-OP OBSERVER  

0934 PM     HAIL             4 NW PETERSBURG         41.90N 98.13W 
06/16/2014  E1.75 INCH       BOONE              NE   PUBLIC          

            HAIL COVERNING THE GROUND. RANGING FROM QUARTER TO GOLF 
            BALL SIZE. 


&&

$$

Environment

The event across northeast Nebraska on June 16, 2014 was synoptically typical for significant severe weather across the central and northern Plains. Aloft the wind profile was from the southwest that allows for the advection of warm and dry air from the higher terrain over the southwestern United States into the Plains states creating steep mid tropospheric lapse rates. This inversion aloft or capping is important to allow for the development of strong instability as warm moist air moves north on strong southerly winds from the Gulf of Mexico. A number of weak weather disturbances were visible moving through the area within the southwest flow aloft that helped to break the capping inversion and trigger periods of thunderstorms on the 16th through the 17th of June. 

Figure 1: 0000 UTC 17 June 300mb Anslysis (SPC)	Figure 2: 0000 UTC 17 June 500mb Analysis (SPC)	Figure 3: 0000 UTC 17 June 700mb Analysis (SPC)
Figure 4: 0000 UTC 17 June 850mb Analysis (SPC)

The storm-scale environment over the area exhibited extreme instability (Fig. 4) and strong vertical wind shear (Fig. 5). This creates an environment that is ideal for supercell thunderstorms. The low-level wind profile also exhibited strong directional turning with height as well as increasing wind speeds, which is favorable for the thunderstorms to rotate at the lower levels (Fig. 6). These parameters combined to create very high to extreme values of supercell composite (Fig. 7) and significant tornado parameter (Fig. 8) in the location of the supercell that would produce the northeast Nebraska area tornadoes on June 16. Atmospheric soundings from North Platte, NE and Omaha, NE are presented in figures 9 through 11. The 1200 UTC sounding from North Platte, NE indicated that there was the potential for extreme instability to develop later in the day. The 1900 UTC and 0000 UTC Omaha soundings indicated that the instability had developed, and this couple with the strong environmental wind shear was creating a volatile atmosphere.  

Figure 4: 2100 UTC 16 June MLCAPE/CIN	Figure 5: 2100 UTC 16 June Effective Shear	Figure 6: 2100 UTC 16 June 0-1km SRH
Figure 7: 2100 UTC 16 June Supercell Composite	Figure 8 2100 UTC Sig Tornado Parameter	Figure 9 1200 UTC North Platte, NE Sounding
Figure 10 1900 UTC Omaha, NE Sounding	Figure 11 0000 UTC Omaha, NE Sounding

A subjective surface analysis is presented in figures 12 through 14. Although the synoptic warm front and cold front were located from southeast South Dakota into northern Iowa and southern Minnesota, an outflow boundary from thunderstorms earlier in the day resided over northeast Nebraska. The addition of this boundary both helped to initiate the supercell, but also create an enhanced low-level shear environment for the production of intense tornadoes. This boundary diminished through the late afternoon as the thunderstorms moved out of the area.

Figure 12: 2000 UTC Subjective Surface Analysis	Figure 13: 2100 UTC Subjective Surface Analysis	Figure 14: 2200 UTC Subjective Surface Analysis