Tornadoes can occur any time of year across the country, but the following guidelines can help you prepare for the worst. Most importantly, if you are responsible for nursing homes, apartments or manufacturing, knowing how to respond to threats like tornados is imperative.
The U.S. gets hit with thousands of tornadoes every year. According to the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory (NSSL), the figure is around 1,200 annually.
The threat of tornadoes persists year-round, though it shifts across the country during different times of the year. Tornado season on the Gulf coast is in the spring, while in the southern Plains, which includes Oklahoma, Kansas, and Texas, peak tornado season occurs from May and lasts into early June.
Meanwhile, in the northern Plains and upper Midwest (which includes Minnesota, North and South Dakota, and Iowa), tornado season is in June or July. Nebraska, in particular, sees more tornadoes during spring and early summer mostly in the afternoon or early evening, according to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
Nebraska Tornadoes Information
Based on data from the National Weather Service (NWS), more than 2,000 tornadoes hit the state from 1950 to 2012. Within this span of 62 years, the 1990s had the most tornado frequency among the decades with recorded data. For instance, the year 1999 received 102 tornadoes, the second-highest year with the most tornadoes during the recorded period.
Table 1. Nebraska Tornado Frequency in the 1990s
| Year | Total No. of Tornadoes for the Year |
| 1990 | 88 |
| 1991 | 63 |
| 1992 | 74 |
| 1993 | 69 |
| 1994 | 55 |
| 1995 | 26 |
| 1996 | 60 |
| 1997 | 30 |
| 1998 | 65 |
| 1999 | 102 |
| Total for the Decade | 632 |
| Average | 63.2 |
Source: National Weather Service (NWS)
The 1999 figure is only eclipsed by the year 2004 with 110 tornadoes. The year 2003 was another year with more than 80 tornadoes hitting Nebraska, and the mid-1970s received around 70 to 80 tornadoes annually.
You can find the top 10 years with the most tornadoes to hit the state from 1950 to 2012 below:
Table 2. Top 10 Years with the Most Tornadoes in Nebraska (1950-2012)
| Year | Total No. of Tornadoes for the Year |
| 2004 | 110 |
| 1999 | 102 |
| 1990 | 88 |
| 2003 | 81 |
| 1975 | 79 |
| 1992 | 74 |
| 1993 | 69 |
| 1977 | 68 |
| 1998 | 65 |
| 1991 | 63 |
Source: National Weather Service (NWS)
As already mentioned, Nebraska’s peak tornado season runs from spring and early summer, based on data from the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA). For the period of 1950 to 2012, June had the highest monthly average of tornadoes occurring, with 14.79 tornadoes, followed by May with 11.92 tornadoes.
Table 3. Nebraska Tornado Frequency (1950-2012)
| Month | Total | Average |
| January | 6 | 0.10 |
| February | 2 | 0.03 |
| March | 64 | 1.03 |
| April | 243 | 3.92 |
| May | 739 | 11.92 |
| June | 917 | 14.79 |
| July | 360 | 5.81 |
| August | 166 | 2.68 |
| September | 58 | 0.94 |
| October | 75 | 1.21 |
| November | 3 | 0.05 |
| December | 2 | 0.03 |
| Total | 2,636 | 42.52 |
Source: National Weather Service (NWS)
The Top Killer Tornadoes to Hit Nebraska
With more than 2,000 tornadoes hitting the state from 1950 to 2012, Nebraska has seen its share of some of the baddest tornadoes in the country. Here are a couple of the worst tornadoes to ever hit the state.
Easter Sunday Tornadoes (1913)
On March 23, 1913, an Easter Sunday, Nebraskans were taken by surprise of not just one or two or three but seven tornadoes. The Easter Sunday Tornadoes, as they are collectively called, caused many fatalities totaling over a hundred people.
This National Weather Service (NWS) article recalls that fateful day: “… The day promised spring-like weather. But spring in Nebraska is also tornado season, and the storm which brewed that Easter day proved to be one of the most deadly in our history.”
The NWS article continues: “There was little advance warning. Except a sharp fall of the barometer and temperature; it came and went within a few seconds, giving people scarcely time to get to their cellars.”
The series of tornadoes hit Cass and Saunders Counties first, before moving to Yutan, Berlin, and Omaha, where more than 100 people died. The tornadoes also hit Mead, Rock Bluffs, Craig, DeSoto, and Nehawka. In total, the storm covered 40 miles of Nebraska in just 35 minutes!
In addition to the fatalities, the tornadoes also destroyed 800 homes and ruined 2,000 more. Ohama saw 600 homes destroyed and more than 1,100 others damaged, while in Yutan, 40 homes and four churches were either destroyed or damaged. In all, the Easter Sunday Tornadoes of 1913 left more than $8.7 million loss.
The last Nebraskan town the Easter Sunday Tornadoes hit was Berlin (now called Otoe), before making their way to Iowa to wreck more havoc.
The Grand Island Tornadoes (1980)
Nearly 70 years later, on the night of June 3, 1980, a series of tornadoes hit Nebraska once more. Again, seven tornadoes struck the state, in particular, Grand Island in Hall County and the surrounding areas.
“They were part of a supercell thunderstorm complex that produced eighteen tornadoes from Nebraska to West Virginia,” the Nebraska State Historical Society writes in their blog. “All seven tornadoes struck within a three-hour period,” the society continues.
If you think the sheer number of tornadoes isn’t peculiar, then how about this? “The event was also unusual for producing three tornadoes that rotated clockwise,” the Nebraska State Historical Society describes the event. “This is rare in the northern hemisphere, where over 99 percent of tornadoes rotate counter-clockwise.”
If all of these sound like something out of a fiction novel or movie, the creators of the film “Night of the Twisters” had the same idea. Only in this case, Nebraskans aren’t acting out scenes from the Night of the Twisters movie – They experienced the REAL deal.
In the end, the Grand Island Tornadoes left five people dead, around 200 injured, and hundreds of homes and many businesses destroyed. In total, the damages caused by the freak tornadoes are pegged at more than $200 million.
Does Nebraska get tornadoes?
Fortunately, the night of the twisters did not only inspire a book and movie. The natural event also fueled engineering research.
Today, you’ll find a park in Grand Island that was made with the debris from that 1980 event and a marker retelling what really happened during the real night of the twisters.