| Shortly before noon
on April 8, 1999, with temperatures in the 70's and dewpoints in
the lower 60's, thunderstorms began to form along a dryline passing through
eastern Nebraska.
One of these thunderstorms became a supercell and Doppler radar showed a tornado vortex signature over Lincoln, NE. A tornado warning was issued for the city of Lincoln and the northern half of the county (Lancaster County). The storm moved rapidly through the area (45 mph forward speed) and began to put down small funnels on the northeast edge of Lincoln (the first funnel spotted was at Hwy. 6 and 84th Street in Northeast Lincoln. Another funnel was spotted near Waverly, NE and eventually, the thunderstorm produced a small tornado near Yutan, NE (approximately 35 miles northeast of Lincoln). The following photographs were taken by John McKinnis of Yutan, NE and illustrate various stages in the development of the "Yutan" tornado. Fortunately, it remained in open area and missed the town of Yutan before pulling back up into the parent cloud. The photos were taken at about 1:20 PM and 4 miles west of Yutan, looking east. The line of thunderstorms moved on into Iowa where several more small tornadoes were produced, resulting in some cars and trucks being blown off of Interstate 80 and with some minor damage to some buildings in western Iowa. The SPC forecast for the day is shown below.
Click on the following link or on the photograph
TWO MORE LINKS TO INFORMATION ON THE APRIL 8 STORM: Science Operations Officer, NWS Valley, NE, Analysis of Storm Event Storm of the Month April 8 Report at the Omaha NWS Web Site (use back button to return here) |
