Coleridge Tornado June 2003

Public Information Statement,
Issued by NWS WFO Omaha, NE

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
            

Several Damage Photos - Click Here

Story in the Omaha World Herald

     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.