The Most Stubborn Tornado: 45 Minutes on a 2% Day

The Most Stubborn Tornado 45 Minutes on a 2% Day A 2% tornado risk sounds low. But on the evening of June 16, 2025, a single storm in Lincoln County, Nebraska produced two tornadoes, and the second one crawled south at walking pace for 45 minutes. Using real NOAA satellite and radar records and the National Weather Service damage survey, this film explains the science of tornado forecasts, how landspouts and supercell tornadoes form, and why an EF rating is an estimate from damage rather than a measurement. 0:00 Forecast: 2% — What Happened Next 1:48 The Forecast Map and the Atmosphere 6:54 Two Tornadoes From One Storm 18:29 The EF Scale and the Damage Survey 26:43 Lessons From a Low-Risk Day There are patterns all around us. Earth Patterns explores the processes behind them. Discover how movement, erosion, circulation, and changing conditions shape the natural world. Look for the connections between what we can observe and the science that helps explain it. Subscribe for more documentaries about our planet:    / @earthpatterns-j8u   What patterns have you noticed in nature? Share your observations below—we’d love to hear them. Some scenes are animated diagrams and illustrations, and some clips are representative footage rather than the exact event described. SOURCES • NWS North Platte: Dickens tornado page, preliminary damage survey (June 17, 2025) and Tornado Warning #19 – weather.gov/lbf/Dickenstornadojune162025 • Storm Prediction Center: Day 1 Outlook June 16, 2025; Mesoscale Discussion 1320; EF Scale – spc.noaa.gov • NOAA NEXRAD KLNX radar via Iowa Environmental Mesonet · GOES-19 satellite: CSU/CIRA & NOAA • Wakimoto & Wilson (1989), Monthly Weather Review 117 · Markowski, Rasmussen & Straka (1998), Weather and Forecasting 13 · Monthly Weather Review vol. 151 (2023) • El Reno 2013 RaXPol study (27th AMS SLS) · NWS Grand Forks: Enderlin EF5 · Illinois Public Media (Prof. Jeff Frame) · NWS SKYWARN Survey figures are preliminary; wind speeds are estimates, not measurements. IMAGE CREDITS • NOAA/NWS, NOAA NSSL, NWS Amarillo, NWS Huntsville (Alabama 2011, a different storm) – public domain • Jeremy Bower / NOAA (CC BY 2.0) · Harald Richter / NOAA NSSL (CC BY 2.0) · U.S. Air Force photo by SrA Elizabeth Figueroa · Ammodramus (CC0) • Real footage of other storms (place/year on screen): Sean Waugh, NOAA NSSL; Runningonbrains (CC BY-SA 4.0); Stefan Klein (CC BY-SA 4.0); BusyWikipedian (CC BY-SA 4.0); Sean Korbitz (CC BY 3.0); Brainandforce (CC BY 4.0); Oliver Timm (CC BY-SA 2.0); MaxFrear (CC BY 3.0) – via Wikimedia Commons • Stock: Pixabay (NickyPe, RuslanSikunov, DancingSky) · Music & SFX: Epidemic Sound Licenses: creativecommons.org/licenses Some scenes are AI-generated illustrations, not footage of the June 16, 2025 storm. #Tornado #TornadoScience #Nebraska #SevereWeather #Landspout #SupercellTornado #NOAA #NWS #WeatherEducation #Documentary