Rare tornado strikes Sutton; creates state of emergency

An unusual tornado struck the community of Sutton at 6:53 Saturday morning causing considerable damage to the northeast Clay County community.

The National Weather Service has estimated the peak wind speed was 110 miles per hour. The tornado traveled about 1.6 miles and at its maximum was 260 yards wide. It lasted about 3 minutes. Rated as an EF-1, it was a small one for Nebraska tornadoes but for those in its path the damage was substantial.

One of those businesses hit was the Clay County News office. The newspaper office has been relocated to the Sutton Community Center. Tory Duncan, the newspaper’sgeneral manager, Saturday afternoon predicted it would be a long time before the paper is able to return to its office on North Saunders street, if ever. The front glass remained intact but there was considerable damage to the structure. The Nebraska Press Association notified association members on Tuesday that the News building had been condemned and would have to be razed.

Sutton declared a state of emergency following the storm.

The storm developed within a long-lasting line of thunderstorms and moved from northwest to the southeast across Sutton.

The first visible damage occurred as the tornado developed at the northwestern edge of Sutton. The most obvious damage in this area was associated with trees that had large branches broken off. Some small outbuildings were overturned and the doors and windows of homes damaged.

Roof damage was limited as the tornado gathered steam.

The most dramatic damage occurred in the downtown area where a steel roof was peeled from a downtown building and carried about one block to the south. The roof appeared to have damaged brickwork on the News building and a nearby bank before falling to the street near the Cornerstone Bank. Windows were broken out of the BNSF depot. A carport was carried a block or more and deposited on an automobile parked in front of the community’s grocery store.

The tornado’s wind speeds appeared to peak at an estimated 110 miles per hour as it dragged the roof across other downtown buildings.

The tornado continued southeastward, snapping several trees in the southeastern half of the community.

An old garage was swept off its foundation and blown into a nearby home and garage causing significant damage to those buildings.

As it left town and dissipated, it encountered the golf course where a maintenance building was severely damaged and several healthy trees snapped.

It passed into a corn field producing a small damage path.

‘The tornado appeared to have lifted less than one-half mile southeast of Sutton. An overturned pivot irrigation system was observed less than one-half mile southeast of Sutton. But the weather service said this was likely damaged by straight-line winds.

The storms were fast moving. The damage is all thought to have happened in less than three minutes.

According to a 2021 study, only six tornadoes had previously been observed in Nebraska that happened between 6 and 7 a.m.

Fortunately, there were no known injuries.

The Fujita scale classifies tornadoes with wind speeds ranging from 86 to 110 miles per hour as weak and assigns a description of EF1. An EF1 is one step below and EF2 which has wind speeds of 111 to 135 miles per hour and is described as a strong tornado.