SPC Stats

Path length: 28 miles

Width:  2640 yards

Fatalities:  0

Injuries:  1

Rating:  F4

County:  Hitchcock, Red Willow

7 out of the 11 tornadoes that occurred on June 15, 1990 were in the state of Nebraska.  The strongest was an F4 that grew at times to be 1.5 miles wide. It began just NW of Stratton.  It was a multi-vortex tornado at this time that merged near Macklin Bay on Swanson Lake.  It moved ENE and lifted after a 28 mile path 5 miles NE of McCook.

Most of the structural damage was in Hitchcock County.  35 rural houses were damaged/destroyed.  There was one injury and no fatalities.

It was reported that the tornado picked up water and mud from Swanson Lake and threw it up against the SW side of buildings, trees and poles nearby.

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.

Image from Storm Data

Looking WSW from a farm several miles WNW of Culbertson, NE of the rotating tornadic thunderstorm that produced the Stratton-McCook F4 tornado. The house on the farm were this picture was taken was later destroyed by the tornado. Photo from Calvin Brown via the June 1990 Storm Data Publication.

Newspaper Clippings

Discrepancies:

We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the June 1990 Storm Data Publication and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and found the following differences:

Width:

  • Grazulis has a width of 1500 yards.
  • SPC/NCDC have a width of 2640 yards (1.5 miles).
  • Storm Data has a range of widths from 1 mile to 1.5 miles.

    Sources:

    The Storm Prediction Center

    NCDC Storm Events Database

    June 1990 Storm Data Publication

    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 1301.

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

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