A Preliminary Study of the 16 June 2014 Tornadoes in Northeast Nebraska

During the late afternoon of 16 June 2014, four tornadoes rated EF4 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale were spawned by a single supercell thunderstorm over northeast Nebraska. One of these tornadoes decimated the small town of Pilger. There were numerous unique aspects to this storm. Two intense mesocyclones were occurring within 1.2 nautical miles of each other and simultaneously having violent tornadoes (both rated EF4), and the supercell contained three tornadic mesocyclones at one time.

This presentation will serve to document various observational components of the event. A thorough analysis of the WSR-88D data will show storm-scale features of the mesocyclones and parent supercell, which will be paired with several videos and photographs. A mesoscale environmental analysis will show that extreme instability and shear were present, and that the convection was focused along an outflow boundary that was moving with the supercell.

Finally, a detailed damage survey was conducted from the ground and air, and was supplemented by high-resolution satellite data. The damage survey will be correlated with the radar analysis for a complete depiction of the tornado tracks and characteristics.