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

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.