it's June 23rd 1998 and Columbus Nebraska farmer Andy olmer has just arrived home when he sees this out of his window Andy quickly got his video camera and began to record the monster as it was coming directly towards his house over the course of the next few minutes he would provide the world with some of the best tornado footage ever shot it's late June of 1998 and the tornado season is well underway and it's been a historic one an extremely active first half of the year has left the US on it heals a few anomalous events have happened so far including Florida's deadliest tornado outbreak in history in February an unseasonably strong tornado outbreak in Minnesota in March a couple of F5 tornadoes in Alabama and Tennessee in April and the only ever high-risk severe weather event issued for the Northeast in May this active Trend would continue into June which brings us to June 23rd 1998 throughout the day a moderately strong trough had swept across portions of the central us situ ating itself over Nebraska across the state temperatures Rose into the low and mid 80s due points also Rose to nearly 75° signifying extremely humid air this warm air mass allowed for a pocket a cape with values approaching 4500 to enter the area this cape or convective available potential energy AKA fuel for thunderstorms would significantly Aid in what would happen later in the day as we travel 20,000 ft up from the ground we find moderately strong 40 to 50 knot winds out of the Southwest however when we travel back down to just a few thousand ft off the ground we find what was the real Secret Sauce to this event what were measly winds throughout most of the day quickly and suddenly got sent into overdrive mode by what's known as the low-level jet the low-l jet is a near daily occurrence during the spring and summer when the low-level winds in the atmosphere significantly increase around in after sunset this is typically caused when the upper levels of the atmosphere cool as the day goes on which causes a pressure gradient between the cool upper atmosphere and the warm lower atmosphere this pressure gradient then results in strong winds flowing from the cool air to the warm air this low-level jet does a couple of things that significantly benefits tornadoes the first is that the sharp increase in low-level wind significantly increases the amount of Shear or spin which is obviously critical to tornadoes the other is that the low-level jet can pull much more favorable environmental conditions for tornadoes northwards with it as the evening goes on the low-level jet would prove quintessential on June 23rd 1998 as it brought in with it more explosive environmental conditions in from the south and also evolved what was just average wind shear throughout most of the day into very strong wind shear by the evening as the day progressed a dry line developed and spanned a majority of the central plains and would serve as the focal point for thunderstorm development as the environment cooked throughout the afternoon explosive storm initiation finally occurred just after 6 p.m. local time and storms moved Northeast as the thunderstorms continued to develop in eastern Nebraska three separate residents who were in The Path would unknowingly be some of the only people to document what was about to happen the main storm of Interest developed just barely to the southwest of the city of Columbus Nebraska and slowly moved towards town just before entering town the storm put down its first tornado the tornado which touched down just to the north of Duncan was a relatively weak F1 that remained on the ground for just a couple of miles after lifting the city of Columbus looked to be staring straight down the barrel of another tornado with the supercell reorganizing and heading towards town all residents could do though was just hold their breath and hope luckily though and even though the storm was spinning like a top it passed over town without producing just as the storm is exiting the Columbus City Limits Kent Sunderman who is just North of town begins to record [Music] amazingly just three miles after passing through town the storm put down its next tornado which is initially just a uncondensed bowl with slight ground circulation Kent Records the tornado as it makes a few unsuccessful attempts at fully condensing when he then realizes that the storm has produced another tornado to the South this satellite tornado is another relatively weak F1 and is also moving Northeast just a few minutes later the first tornado would try another attempt at fully condensing and this one would prove successful spectacularly the tornado goes from a barely visible funnel to a large stovepipe tornado in just the matter of seconds oh no it's hitting the ground oh man I hope somebody doesn't get hurt over there oh my gosh oh no it's on the ground it's on the ground should we call somebody call who I don't know cuz it's on the ground right there I'm pretty sure by the lake stop it is on the ground look at it turning into something big the tornado continues to increase its size and strength as it tracks over rural Farmland the tornado initially moved Northeast and then turned to the north then Northwest before coming to an almost complete stop and eventually moving back off to the Northeast meanwhile Arland Wilkey who is just 3 mil to the northeast of Sunderman also spots the approaching twister and begins to record as well the tornado which has been moving slowly and erratically continues to grow in size to a quarter of a mile wide to AR and lui's looks like he's heading to Jerry AR's Place l l that area doy nothing left nothing left them trees is that the Long Branch what you out at home touch down we're standing in front of our house in front of my house as Arland is recording the tornado is inflicting some of its first damage on a few farmhouses to his East is here at my place nobody's at his place I think it's east of his place it's right into R about east of that it's hard watch uh Ruben's house sounds like a freight train from my house tell Todd we got it on video we got it on video from right here we're just about to see a house disappear it's on the other side of Reuben it's on the other side it's it's on the other side now I went past's house and we can still See's house so it's somewhere on the other side of R's house it didn't touch it went North R get some people over to luci's and N tell Arnold and AR it went right through arie's place and OU get that I want that aen right there Jerry AR Place had to beit I would think I don't know maybe Long Branch there's a huge one down there Branch I [Music] going while the tornado is passing to arland's East it's heading directly towards Andy who is about 5 miles further to the Northeast come on you nobody has look at the swirls I know Andy has just arrived home from the airport it was in the process of changing clothes when he noticed the tornado out of his window and he also begins to record look at the little one look at the little one right there whole bunch of little ones warning oh oh God I think good right which way is it going is it coming this way going to just sitting there well it may look like it's sitting there he mentions in the video that the tornado doesn't seem to be moving which is a Telltale sign that it's coming directly at you for instance if you look at the left edge of the tornado and use the tree line as a reference refence point it's not moving left or right which means it's coming directly at them meanwhile back at arland's location the tornado passed directly to his East and now has an audible Roar heard on the videoy what' you say go get that big Hailstone he said everybody's okay there did H there sounded like it the tornado impacted some of his neighbors houses down the road but luckily they avoided a direct hit and the property sustained only moderate damage the tornado continues on its Northeast track directly towards the residence even though the tornado is still a few miles away from his location you can now hear the audible Roar of the tornado on his video as well indicating that this is likely a violent tornado hope we got insurance paid up dear there's some damn big hail storm's coming down um um um hi come on Andy Len to it woo that is definitely no huh that's her tornado Bo hey late see this thing Andy's wife Susan very understandably begins to try and convince him to put the video camera down and to seek shelter in the basement but he can't take his eyes off of it this is not good after a few more minutes of recording Andy finally begins to realize the danger but remembers that he was in the midst of changing close when he began to record he then proceeds to utter one of the funniest and most iconic lines ever from a tornado video Susan get my pants once Andy puts all of his clothes back on he obliges to his wife's request and stops recording to take shelter I'm getting in however just a minute or so later Andy changes his mind and once again goes to the door to record again as if the tornado could not get any more visually impressive it begins to instantaneously change its form from a wedge to a traditional rope tornado oh and then in another instance it's gone oh went up in the col Andy once again heads downstairs to seek shelter when Andy once again returns upstairs to record some more he finds that the tornado has dropped once again as a rope however by some miracle the tornado made an Abrupt and hard turn to the west and somehow missed their Farm while Andy is recording the tornado in its final stages from right under it Arland and Kent are filming it from miles away to the Southwest in much safer spots back at the RAR residence though Andy records the last seconds of the tornado's life as it actually turns back to the east after passing by the farm eventually though the Rope finally dissipates after this tornado lifted the storm continued traveling Northeast and it would produce another four tornadoes over the course of the next 2 and 1/2 hours I couldn't really find any other information on these additional tornadoes in fact information and damage pictures from the main tornado are also very scary ultimately though the main tornado was rated as an F2 with estimated wind speeds between 113 and 157 mph This Tornado was almost certainly much stronger than the official ratings suggest however since it mainly stayed over Open Fields F2 damage was the highest that surveyors found the Columbus Nebraska tornado of 1998 is another classic example of the limitations of tornado ratings as this one was almost certainly stronger than the assigned rating but Lu luckily though for locals it mainly stayed over Open Fields causing us in all likelihood to never know how truly powerful it was