May 7, 2005 tornado in Holdrege, Nebraska

On May 7, 2005, a supercell went through Holdrege, Nebraska, and put down a small, dusty tornado. The twister spun up to the south of town and then darted northeast, just missing the Holdrege airfield. In continued north and either lifted or hopscothed north until it got just east of Kearney, Nebraska.


This is a photo taken from the dash of my windshield as I drove south down Highway 183 into Holdrege. (I was shooting film back then -- thus the film grain.) In the distance is a large, lowering, disorganized "wall cloud" -- a cloud that is often a precursor to a tornado.




The view when I got to the south end of town. This is looking almost directly up into the sky with a very wide angle lens. I ended up backing off a bit, as I didn't want a tornado to drop on top of me.






The local Family Dollar store -- with a tornadic debris cloud about a half mile behind it. This is looking to the east.



Looking east down 11th Avenue. You can see the debris cloud in the distance. Forunately, the damage from this tornado was minimal, as it only tracked over farmland, taking out a barn and a few pivots.