SPC Stats

Path length: 23.6 miles

Width:  163 yards

Fatalities:  1

Injuries:  0

Rating:  F3

County:  Stanton, Cuming, Thurston

There were 3 confirmed tornadoes on June 17, 1954:  An F2 in Indiana, F1 in Minnesota and the strongest (and the topic of this summary), an F3 in Nebraska.  Per the SPC, the tornado tracked 23.6 miles through Stanton, Cuming and Thurston Counties.  When you plot the official start and end coordinates provided in the tornado database, we should include Wayne County.  (See map below).

The path started North of Pilger in NE Stanton County.  It clipped Stanton/Cuming County border and moved into Wayne County.  It dissipated in Thurston County, NW of the town of Thurston.  There was 1 fatality SE of Winside.  And according to the Climatological Data National Summary (CDNS), we should include 1 injury.

Per the CDNS, there were 10 sets of farm buildings, 1 church, and 1 school destroyed or badly damaged.  Thomas Grazulis adds that the church that “disappeared” was about 10 miles NW of Pender.  He states 17 farms in Cuming County lost buildings.  

Tornado Path

Click Map To Enlarge

SPC coordinates:  Start: 40.15 / -101.23   End:  40.27 / -100.53      

Note:  Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.

Newspaper Clippings

Discrepancies:

We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the June 1954 Climatological Data National Summary (CDNS) and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and found the following differences:

Path Length:

  • SPC/NCDC have a 23.6 mile path length.
  • Grazulis and Storm Data have a length at 16 miles.

Max Width:

  • SPC/NCDC list the width at 163 yards.
  • Grazulis has no width listed.
  • CDNS says the width was “narrow”.

Counties:

  • SPC has the counties in the path as:  Stanton, Cuming, Thurston.
  • NCDC only has Stanton and Thurston.
  • CDNS has no county listing.  They just say the path was “North of Pilger to west of Pender.”
  • Grazulis has the 3 SPC counties and adds Wayne.

Injuries:

  • SPC/NCDC has 0 injuries.
  • CDNS/Grazulis list 1 injury.

      Sources:

      The Storm Prediction Center

      NCDC Storm Events Database

      June 1954 Climatological Data National Summary

      newspapers.com

      Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 981.

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      Newspaper clips are embedded via newspapers.com. Please see their terms and conditions.

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