Residents, weather experts recall record-setting Hallam tornado 20 years later

HALLAM, Neb. (WOWT) - On this day, 20 years ago, the widest tornado ever recorded struck the small town of Hallam, Nebraska on a Saturday afternoon.

“It’s an elite class tornado. I mean, it’s the biggest of the big,” said Michael Gribble, a storm chaser.

The F4 twister was 2.5 miles wide and traveled on the ground more than 50 miles. It was one of the last major tornadoes in the area to be rated using the original Fujita scale, replaced by EF scale in 2007.

This tornado would be an EF-5 by today’s standards.

“It started rotating immediately and took on a cone funnel and yeah it was one of the faster storms I’ve seen go tornadic,” said Gribble.

The only storm to beat this record was Oklahoma’s 2013 El Reno tornado, wider only by one tenth of a mile.

“No, Hallam, I have not seen anything that big before that, nor have I seen anything that big since. Even the El Reno tornado which technically has the record by point one miles, it was visually not as big,” said Gribble.

Meteorologists were prepared for the severe weather risk that day, but did not anticipate anything this big.

“We knew that there was going to be some sort of severe weather of significance, but we didn’t expect exactly what took place,” said Brian Smith a former Omaha National Weather Service Meteorologist.

“I knew strong tornadoes were certainly on the table for that day. So but yeah I mean who can expect a two and a half mile wedge you know I’d never dream that could happen no,” said Gribble.

The tornado caused one death and injured 37, affecting parts of Jefferson, Saline, Gage, Lancaster, and Otoe counties. It left behind $160 million of damage in its path.

“We were coming over that hill, and I’m looking down and seeing destruction. And I was, like my jaw dropped and I said ‘we’re going to be here for a little while,’” said Smith.

The storm tossed school buses, flattened well-built homes, and toppled train cars, launching them off the track.

“These cars had not only flipped over, but had actually bowed out, all of them coupled together off the track from where the tornado had come through,” said Smith.

Now that 20 years have passed, the village of Hallam has rebuilt, but the memory of that historic day still lives on.

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