Rare November tornadoes touched down in parts of Franklin, Webster, and Nuckolls Counties late on this Sunday afternoon. This was the second year in a row in which a tornado touched down in south central Nebraska during the month of November. This was only the fourth time since 2000 that a tornado occurred in the state of Nebraska during the month of November. Additionally, this event marked the second latest calendar day in which tornadoes touched down in Nebraska. The latest was December 13, 1975, when tornadoes occurred in Thayer and Pawnee Counties.
Low stratus enveloped the region on this day, with patches of light rain moving southwest to northeast from Kansas. The largest area of rain moved across all of south central Nebraska between 11 am and 3 pm CST. The passage of its back edge brought an end to the steady rain. Behind this area of rain, scattered convective showers began developing within the dry slot, where the stratus was beginning to break-up, between the cloudy area to the northeast and the clear area to the southwest. From 3 to 5 pm CST, a few showers evolved into thunderstorms. The storms that eventually produced the tornadoes began as showers over north central Kansas, between Norton and Hayes. These cells intensified after 3:30 pm CST, and became low-top mini-supercells. The first tornado was over northeast Franklin County, just after 4 pm CST. The other two tornadoes occurred between 4:30 pm and 5:05 pm over east-central Webster and northwest Nuckolls Counties, and they were on the ground for several minutes, each with path lengths around 4 miles. The Webster County tornado produced EF-1 damage. The other two tornadoes were EF-0. Both of those tornadoes occurred in areas with very few objects to damage. Elsewhere, thunderstorms produced nickel size hail in a couple spots within Dawson and Howard Counties. One inch hail also occurred with the storm that produced the EF-1 tornado, just east of Red Cloud.
An occluded low pressure system emerged from the lee side of the Rockies through the day. The primary low crossed southeast Montana into North Dakota, while the triple point low matured over northeast Colorado and deepened from 996 mb at 6 am CST to 985 mb by 6 pm, as it crossed the western part of Nebraska on its way to near O'Neill. The stratiform rain occurred north of the warm front which began the day along the southern Nebraska border. This front lifted north along with the triple point low. The low-top convection formed along and ahead of the cold front, within the warm sector. In the upper-levels, a deep trough was over the western U.S., with two embedded well-defined shortwave troughs. The lead trough was over Utah and Arizona at 6 am CST. It exhibited negative tilt and was associated with the severe weather. By 6 pm CST, this trough had nearly formed a closed mid-level low along the Nebraska-South Dakota border. At that time, this low was in the left exit region of a 150 kt jet streak at 300 mb. Even with the extensive cloud cover, warm air advection had propelled surface temperatures into the middle and upper 50s, with dewpoints in the middle 50s. Mid-level lapse rates increased as the dry slot moved in, with values as high as 7.5 deg C/km. This resulted in sufficient instability, with MUCAPE at least 500 J/kg, but not as high as 1000 J/kg. Very strong and veering low-level winds resulted in 0-1 km SRH between 400 and 500 m2/s2. SRH of that strength was able to overcome the weak instability to result in a Supercell Composite Index in excess of 4, and a 0-1 Energy-Helicity Index in excess of 1.

Tornado in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 27-NOV-16 16:32:00 to 27-NOV-16 16:39:00 (CST-6)
Location: AMBOY
Tornado F-scale: EF1
Property damage: 150.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Storm Survey

This tornado uprooted trees, destroyed an outbuilding, upset 2 irrigation pivots and caused other minor damage along its path. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 95 MPH.

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 27-NOV-16 15:42:00 to 27-NOV-16 15:42:00 (CST-6)
Location: DARR
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail was reported by a truck driver on Interstate 80 near mile marker 230.

Hail in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 27-NOV-16 16:16:00 to 27-NOV-16 16:16:00 (CST-6)
Location: ST PAUL
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 27-NOV-16 16:25:00 to 27-NOV-16 16:25:00 (CST-6)
Location: RED CLOUD
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Social Media

Tornado in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 27-NOV-16 16:02:00 to 27-NOV-16 16:04:00 (CST-6)
Location: UPLAND
Tornado F-scale: EF0
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Storm Survey

A combination of reports and a search for damage were used to determine that a short, roughly one minute long tornado occurred. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 70 MPH.

Tornado in NUCKOLLS, NEBRASKA
From 27-NOV-16 17:00:00 to 27-NOV-16 17:05:00 (CST-6)
Location: NELSON
Tornado F-scale: EF0
Property damage: 3.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Storm Survey

This tornado caused very minor damage along its short path through rural areas. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 75 MPH.