Region 51: EF2 tornado touched down in southeast Lincoln County; power poles, pivots damaged, no injuries reported

Brandon Myers, Region 51 emergency management director, told the Lincoln County Board of Commissioners on June 23 that a storm cell that moved through the southeast corner of Lincoln County developed funnel clouds northeast of Somerset and ultimately produced an EF1 that later intensified into an EF2 tornado across farm and grazing land.

Myers said the tornado caused the most visible damage where it crossed south of Highway 23, roughly four miles south of the highway: “it took out roughly around 24 power poles, farm fencing, tree line, some pivots,” and some poles were tossed so far the power company could not locate them. He said investigators saw siding and metal roofing debris in places, and reported “at least baseball sized hail” in the area. He added the weather service’s damage-based estimate of the EF2’s top winds was about 134 miles per hour.

The storm stayed over rural land and did not hit houses, Myers said, and there were no reports of deaths or injuries; local deputies and EMS units checked homesteads and assisted storm chasers who had been in the area. Myers described the EF2 as unusually slow-moving and unusually long-lived for the area: it was on the ground for about 45 minutes and tracked roughly three miles.

Commissioners and staff asked about damage to irrigation equipment and where debris may have come from; Myers suggested damaged pivots could explain some metal roofing or siding found downwind. He also advised people who chase storms to “stay at a safe distance, know what the path is” and warned of the hazard from blocked or dead-end roads.

County officials said county roads near the damage were temporarily closed where heavy equipment and power crews worked to restore service.

The report provided the county with situational awareness for road and utility crews; there was no motion or formal action attached to the update.