HALLOWEEN BRINGS TORNADOES TO KANSAS AND NEBRASKA

November 2, 2000 — Witches and goblins gave way to Halloween severe weather warnings for residents of northwest Kansas, south-central and central Nebraska Tuesday evening. The severe weather caused property damage in a 200 mile path, but, thanks to NOAA's National Weather Service warnings and quick action by local emergency managers and the public, there wasn't a single injury reported.

(Click image for larger view. Tornado damage in Oconto, Neb. NOAA photo Wednesday, Nov. 1) [Photos courtesy of Gene Bowman, NOAA's National Weather Service Forecast Office in North Platte, Neb.] (Caption: Small community center where 19 children and four adults took shelter in the basement and came out without a scratch.)

The little town of Oconto, Neb., in Custer County was caught (figuratively and literally) in the center of the storm. Site of a Halloween party, the town's Community Hall was heavily damaged by one of several tornadoes generated by the storm. Because of a 12-minute advance warning from the National Weather Service Forecast Office in North Platte, local residents were able to escape injury by taking shelter in the building's basement. Oconto officials reported 40 homes partially to severely damaged, large trees downed and eight community buildings severely damaged (including the Community Hall and Senior Center).

Moving mostly through lightly-populated rural areas, storms caused by a supercell thunderstorm moving in advance of a Plains cold front ranged from near the town of Colby in northwest Kansas to north-central Nebraska farmland. Tornadoes, high winds and large hail caused damage in Thomas, Decatur and Sherman counties in northwest Kansas then moved across Red Willow, Frontier, Dawson, Custer, Nemaha, Loup and Holt counties in Nebraska.

National Weather Service employees were busy the morning after Halloween examining a track of storm damage more than 200 miles long. Along the damage path, the Weather Service recorded 15 tornado reports, 48 reports of damaging hail and four reports of high winds.

Click image for larger view.

Farm house southeast of Broken Bow, Neb. One man, who was home alone, took shelter in the basement. The rest of the family was not at home when the storm hit.

"Our forecasters in Goodland, Kansas; Hastings, and North Platte, Neb.; were able to track this storm system and provide life-saving warnings to farmsteads and communities for more than 200 miles," Weather Service Central Region director Dennis H. McCarthy said from his Kansas City office. "The fact that tornadoes kept forming and dissipating over that much of two states with not a single injury being reported demonstrates how much attention Plains States emergency management agencies and residents pay to our weather warnings. It takes a tremendous partnership among the National Weather Service, emergency management and the public to attain that kind of safety success."

Preliminary assessments rated the Oconto tornado as an F-2 on the Fujita tornado rating scale, with vortex winds of 113-157 mph, according to meteorologist-in-charge David A. Wert at the North Platte Forecast Office. F-2 tornadoes have the power to rip roofs from well-constructed homes and to uproot large trees. Supercell storms have the potential of producing multiple tornadoes and causing other wind damage and severe weather over large distances, as occurred on Halloween 2000.

Relevant Web Sites
NOAA's National Weather Service

NOAA's Tornadoes Page

NOAA's Weather Page

Media Contact:
Pat Slattery, NOAA's National Weather Service Central Region, (816) 426-7621 ext. 621

 

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