Kearney, NE Tornado History — 154 Tornadoes Since 1950
How many tornadoes has Kearney, NE had?
Kearney has had 154 tornadoes on record within 25 miles since 1950, including 9 violent (EF3+) tornadoes.
When was the most recent tornado near Kearney?
The most recent tornado within 25 miles of Kearney was an EF1 on July 6, 2024.
When is tornado season in Kearney?
May is historically the peak month for tornadoes near Kearney, with 52 on record. Spring through early summer (April–June) generally sees the highest activity across most of the central and southern United States.
At a Glance
Recent Tornado Activity Near Kearney
The last 20 years of confirmed tornadoes within 25 miles — 35 total, averaging 1.8 per year over this window.
Tornadoes by Decade
Tornadoes by Enhanced Fujita Rating
F0–F5 ratings (pre-2007) are grouped with their EF equivalents. The Enhanced Fujita scale replaced the original Fujita scale in February 2007.
Tornadoes by Month
Casualties on Record Near Kearney
1 fatality has been recorded within 25 miles of Kearney since 1950, across 1 event. 12 injuries have been reported across all events. 1960 was the deadliest year on record.
The deadliest single event was a F1 on June 15, 1960, which caused 1 fatality along a 1.5-mile track.
Notable Tornadoes Near Kearney
About Tornadoes in Kearney
This overview was written August 10, 2026. The tornado counts and notable-event figures elsewhere on this page reflect the latest data and may differ from this summary.
Moist Gulf air streaming north across the Plains, dry downslope flow off the Rockies, and strong wind shear beneath the jet stream collide again and again over the Platte River valley, and Kearney's tornado history reads like a ledger of those collisions. An F4 tornado tore through the area on June 6, 1956, and that same autumn, on October 30, 1956, an F3 tracked roughly 65 miles across the region. An F1 on June 16, 1960 killed a resident and injured three others. Decades later the pattern repeated: an F3 carved a 32-mile path on March 13, 1990, and June 7, 1993 brought a cluster of F3 tornadoes, the widest nearly a mile across. The modern era has kept pace. An EF2 caused about eleven million dollars in damage on May 29, 2008. An EF3 struck on June 20, 2011, and an EF1 touched down on July 6, 2024.
The record spans generations because the geography behind it does not change. Kearney sits in south-central Nebraska, where spring and early-summer frontal boundaries stall along the Platte valley, letting deep Gulf moisture pool beneath drier, cooler air aloft — the classic recipe for rotating supercell thunderstorms. Activity clusters in late spring and early summer, though the autumn F3 of 1956 shows that cool-season setups can spin up here too. The NOAA Storm Prediction Center's archive, which underpins the event list elsewhere on this page, carries this same story from the 1950s into the 2020s.