Power Outage in Grand Island, NE

This EF1 tornado tracked nearly 10 miles through rural portions of far east central Hall and far southwestern Merrick counties during the very early morning hours of Monday, July 4th. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 110 MPH, based on the combination of damage to trees, some buildings and homes, and power poles. The tornado was estimated to be 200 yards wide at its widest point.||This tornado first touched down at 12:51 a.m. CDT in a rural area four miles south of downtown Grand Island (near the intersection of South Locust St. and Schimmer Drive) and quickly gained strength, continuing for nearly four miles within Hall County before crossing over into Merrick County near the intersection of Gunbarrel and Stolley Park Roads. Along its total path, it damaged over a half-dozen homes, including blown out windows, shingle and siding damage, and at least one home had part of its roof decking torn off (fortunately no injuries were reported). Other outbuildings and grain bins were damaged or destroyed, including a barn in Merrick County that was over 100 years old. Several power poles were snapped, along with trees and damage to crops. The damage pattern evident in corn fields had a distinct herringbone pattern...consistent with a tornadic wind field. ||This tornado formed in a trailing area of stratiform rainfall not usually conducive for tornadic development. The combination of a very moist, unstable airmass and very favorable wind shear for the time of day were key in the formation of the low-topped supercell which spawned the tornado.

The peak measured wind gust was 84 MPH, recorded at 10:30 PM CDT by the Central Nebraska Regional Airport at Grand Island ASOS. Other measured wind gusts included 66 MPH at 10:34 PM CDT by a mesonet station located one mile northwest of Wood River and 63 MPH at 10:41 PM CDT by a mesonet station located four miles west-southwest of Wood River. County dispatch and broadcast media reported widespread tree damage across the county, including large healthy trees downed, with multiple power poles snapped and power lines downed. Underpasses in Grand Island were briefly impassible due to heavy rainfall.

Freezing rain and freezing drizzle resulted in a coating of ice at least one-quarter inch thick. Travel was hazardous, and numerous tree limbs were downed. Power lines were also affected, causing power outages.

There were multiple reports of tree damage and power outages across Grand Island.

There were multiple reports of tree damage and power outages across Grand Island.

The combination of an extended period of light freezing precipitation and frequent gusts over 50 MPH resulted in power outages across the area. The Grand Island Utilities Director called this one of the top-five worst power outage events of his career.

A 75 MPH wind gust was measured by the Central Nebraska Regional Airport ASOS at 2:49 AM CDT, and an 87 MPH wind gust was measured at 2:51 AM CDT. Widespread tree damage occurred all around the Grand Island area, some trees were totally uprooted and large limbs were downed. Extensive tree damage occurred at the Stuhr Museum on the south side of town. Damage to power lines, power poles, roofs and sheds was also reported. Very heavy rainfall resulted in brief flooding of city streets.

A 75 MPH wind gust was measured by the Central Nebraska Regional Airport ASOS at 2:49 AM CDT, and an 87 MPH wind gust was measured at 2:51 AM CDT. Widespread tree damage occurred all around the Grand Island area, some trees were totally uprooted and large limbs were downed. Extensive tree damage occurred at the Stuhr Museum on the south side of town. Damage to power lines, power poles, roofs and sheds was also reported. Very heavy rainfall resulted in brief flooding of city streets.

The highest wind gust of 75 mph was measured at 6:35 p.m. by the ASOS at the Grand Island Central Nebraska Regional Airport. Other wind gusts included 65 mph one mile south of Wood River, 63 mph four miles west-southwest of Wood River and 60 mph five miles southwest of Grand Island. Grand Island utilities reported short-term power outages to over 2,300 customers. Strong sustained winds around 40 MPH or higher continued for a few hours across the area.

Wind gusts estimated near 60 MPH resulted in a few downed trees and power outages.

A peak wind gust of 63 mph occurred at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island at 1027 CST. A tree fell onto a power line on Hancock St. between 10th and 11th streets. Power was out briefly for 500 residents and the St. Francis Medical Center. The exact time that the tree fell is unknown.

Wind gusts estmiated up to 65 MPH affected mainly the southern side of town, with the main damage suffered by trees at a cemetery near Stolley Park and Webb Roads. A couple trees were uprooted and a few tree limbs were knocked down, which also brought down some power lines. There was also minor roof damage at an area fire station and minor car damage at a car dealership.

Wind gusts estimated between 60 and 65 MPH were reported across Grand Island resulting in power outages, and was also accompanied by penny size hail. On the northwest side of town, a garage and car were damaged when a tree was uprooted. Another tree, reported to be between 50 and 60 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter, was uprooted.

Wind gusts estimated between 60 and 65 MPH were reported across Grand Island resulting in power outages, and was also accompanied by penny size hail. On the northwest side of town, a garage and car were damaged when a tree was uprooted. Another tree, reported to be between 50 and 60 feet tall and 4 feet in diameter, was uprooted.

Damage reported from the wind gusts estimated near 80 MPH included a local housing company having a show home destroyed when it rolled, siding and window damage to a number of homes and recreational vehicles, and vehicle and roof damage at a local manufacturing plant. Tree damage was reported across town. Near the intersection of Highways 30 and 281, a personal storage facility was destroyed and a power pole was snapped and fell on a business. West of town, pivots were overturned and a number of train cars were derailed.

Damage reported from the wind gusts estimated near 80 MPH included a local housing company having a show home destroyed when it rolled, siding and window damage to a number of homes and recreational vehicles, and vehicle and roof damage at a local manufacturing plant. Tree damage was reported across town. Near the intersection of Highways 30 and 281, a personal storage facility was destroyed and a power pole was snapped and fell on a business. West of town, pivots were overturned and a number of train cars were derailed.

Narrow band of heavy snowfall fell across portions of south central Nebraska during the evening hours of March 25th into the early morning hours of March 26th. A small, but potent, upper level disturbance moved across the Central Plains during the last weekend of March. Precipitation began as rain during the early evening hours of March 26th before changing to heavy, wet snow after sunset, from southwest to northeast. Warm air and ground temperatures initially caused snow to melt on contact with the ground, but eventually the moderate to heavy rates overwhelmed the above-freezing ground temperatures and led to rapid snow accumulation even on roads and sidewalks. Snow rates near, or just above, one inch per hour were noted within the narrow band of heavy snow. Because of the narrowness of the snow band, snow amounts ranged drastically over short distances. For instance, just between the Tri-Cities amounts ranged from 8 to 10 inches around Kearney, to 5 to 7 inches in Grand Island, to only 1 to 2 inches in Hastings. The heavy snow band was centered over or just northwest of the Highway 30 corridor, where total amounts of 6 to 10 inches were most common. Snow rates peaked during the late evening of the 25th into the early morning hours of the 26th, before the entire system shifted east of the area by dawn on the 26th.||Impacts were somewhat limited, despite the heavy snow amounts, due to the fact that the majority of the heavy snow occurred during the overnight hours on a weekend. This limited impacts to schools and businesses, and snow removal on roadways was relatively efficient due to the aforementioned warm ground temperatures. Also, wind speeds were not overly strong and trees had not started the leafing process, so this limited damage to trees and power lines much more than if this event occurred a few weeks later into the spring season.

A large storm system brought a wide range in precipitation types to the area, with thunderstorms, rain, freezing rain/drizzle, sleet, and snow all reported at various times through the event. Precipitation began on the morning of January 2nd, arriving from west/southwest to east/northeast, as rain and a wintry mix with temperatures near or just above freezing. This first round of precipitation exited to the northeast out of the forecast area between 4pm and 5pm. Any break west of Highway 281 was short-lived, however, as scattered to widespread precipitation redeveloped between 6pm and 8pm, and some of this activity was convective in nature. Yet another round of precipitation developed after midnight as the deep upper low approached from the west. Most of the precipitation ended by 6am on the 3rd as the mid level dry slot worked into southern Nebraska. Small, narrow bands of wrap around precipitation redeveloped during the late morning and continued into the afternoon, mainly for areas along and east of Highway 281 and north of Highway 6. Wintry precipitation amounts varied widely from west to east due to a strong temperature gradient. The heaviest snow was northwest of the Tri-Cities, where amounts of 5-8 inches were reported. A mix of light icing and 1 to 3 inches of snow accumulation occurred roughly along a line from Arapahoe, to Kearney, to St. Paul. Icing was of greater concern for eastern portions of the forecast area where ice accumulation ranged anywhere from a trace/light glaze to closer to two-tenths of inch near the Highway 81 corridor. Snow amounts in eastern counties generally remained around 1 inch, or less. Impacts from this system ranged from school and business closures, to spotty power outages - most notably east and northeast of the Tri-Cities. The Nebraska State Patrol reported there were 35 crashes and 175 motorist assists during the event across the state.

Based solely on wind chill values, South Central Nebraska endured one of its overall most significant, but brief cold blasts of the last 30+ years during these days shortly before Christmas, with the harshest wind chills focused between the evening of the 21st and the morning of the 23rd. Based on observations from the Grand Island ASOS (Central Nebraska Regional Airport), which reasonably represented conditions across the 24-county area as a whole, most of South Central Nebraska endured roughly five consecutive hours of extreme/rare wind chills around -40 degrees (F) or colder, around 30 consecutive hours of wind chills around -30 or colder (Warning criteria), and around 42 straight hours of wind chills around -20 or colder (Advisory criteria). The absolute worst wind chills occurred on the morning of the 22nd, during which time nearly the entire area saw values plummet into the -40 to -48 range, including airport ASOS readings as low as -48 at Ord, -45 in Hastings and -44 at Grand Island. Although some places (especially northern counties) faced similar to even slightly colder wind chills less than two years prior (during the significant, more prolonged cold blast of mid-February 2021), especially southern parts of the area likely hadn't experienced wind chills this brutal in over 30 years...since the winter of 1989-90! Digging a bit deeper into the comparison between the sheer magnitude of the cold/wind chills between this Dec. 2022 Extreme Cold event and the aforementioned Feb. 2021 event, this one was certainly driven more by strong winds and less-so by extreme ambient air temperatures. In fact, no official daily temperature records were set this time around per ASOS data at Grand Island/Hastings, with actual low temperatures across most of South Central Nebraska on the morning of the 22nd only bottoming out in the -10 to -20 range. As a result, these extreme wind chills were significantly driven by relentlessly strong north-northwest winds. During the entire 30-hour period that the Grand Island ASOS observed wind chills of -30 or colder (centered between the evening of the 21st and the early morning of the 23rd), sustained speeds averaged 20-30 MPH, accompanied by frequent gusts at least 30-40 MPH. Although most of the area saw wind chills climb to slightly warmer than -20 by mid-day on the 23rd (due to the combination of slowly-rising temperatures and decreasing winds), at least sporadic wind chills as cold as -15 to -20 persisted from the night of the 23rd into the morning of the 24th, after which time the final Wind Chill Advisory was allowed to expire. Interestingly, this brief-but-intense cold blast was actually followed by a steady warm-up into and beyond Christmas itself. Again referencing Grand Island ASOS data (generally representative of South Central Nebraska as a whole) the daily high temperature bottomed out at -5 degrees on the 22nd, but then steadily recovered to 9 degrees on the 23rd, 16 on the 24th and 41 on the 25th. In fact, less than a week after the brutal cold of the 22nd, highs soared to between the upper 40s-upper 50s on the 28th. ||Although the bitterly-cold wind chills were certainly the main weather story in South Central Nebraska between the 21st-24th, the early part of this time frame also featured one of the area's first semi-impactful winter precipitation events of the season. To kick things off, much of the daylight hours on the 21st brought a light mix of snow/freezing drizzle, making roads at least somewhat slick. However, the main event transpired during the evening-overnight, as a west-southwest to east-northeast oriented band of moderate to briefly-heavy snow gradually marched across the area, developing slightly behind the leading edge of a powerful Arctic cold front. This main snow band first organized within northern/west-central counties mainly 8-10 PM and eventually exited far southeastern local counties mainly 2-4 AM. Although the heaviest snow only lasted around two hours at any given location, this was long enough to drop a widespread 1-2 (isolated slightly higher), with visibility commonly reduced to at least one-half mile at times thanks to strong north winds sustained 25-30 MPH/gusting up to around 45 MPH. Although falling snow moved out of South Central Nebraska before daybreak on the 22nd, the combination of residual blowing snow and the aforementioned extreme cold/wind chills made for a most unpleasant weather situation for the morning commute. Briefly touching on the meteorological background behind this Extreme Cold event, the aforementioned sharp Arctic front blasted through the area from north-to-south between the late afternoon and mid-evening of the 21st. During the day on the 22nd, the still strong (but slowly decreasing) winds were driven by a stout pressure gradient directed between a roughly 1011 millibar low centered over northeast AR/southeast MO (along the cold front) and a stout 1055 millibar high centered over MT.

It was an unforgettable Independence Day for rural residents of far east central Hall and far southwestern Merrick counties, as a climatologically-rare, very early morning EF1-rated tornado abruptly emerged from the cover of darkness and carved out a nearly 10 mile southwest-to-northeast path over a span of 19 minutes, damaging over a half dozen homes, destroying several outbuildings, snapping a number of power poles and damaging trees and crops (fortunately no injuries were reported). This was a high-end EF1 tornado with an estimated peak wind of 110 MPH, touching down at 12:51 a.m. CDT only a short distance south-southeast of the Grand Island city limits (near the intersection of South Locust St. and Schimmer Drive). It continued for nearly four miles within Hall County before crossing over into Merrick County near the intersection of Gunbarrel and Stolley Park Roads. Within Merrick County, the tornado persisted for nearly six more miles before lifting approximately five miles southwest of Chapman at 1:10 a.m. CDT (near the intersection of 5th and D Roads). By South Central Nebraska standards, this was a unique/unusual tornado event in at least two particular ways (not to mention that it took place on a prominent national holiday). For starters, this late night/very early morning tornado was a local rarity, with only around 3 percent of all Nebraska tornadoes between 1950-2020 having occurred between midnight and sunrise. Secondly, the storm mode and meteorological environment were quite out of the ordinary for the region, as this tornado was spawned by a low-topped supercell firmly embedded within a broad area of stratiform rain...more typical of what might occur in a tropical environment in the southeastern United States (see below for more mesoscale details). ||Examining the bigger picture of convective evolution leading up to and following the Hall-Merrick County tornado, the evening of Sunday July 3rd started off with a more traditional round of strong to perhaps marginally-severe storms within South Central Nebraska. Primarily between 7:30-9:30 p.m. CDT, isolated to scattered storms that initially developed to the west/south of the area within southwest Nebraska/northern Kansas spread north-northeastward into several local counties mainly south of a line from Gothenburg-Hastings, prompting a couple of Severe Thunderstorm Warnings that included portions of Dawson, Franklin, Webster, Kearney and Adams counties. However, there were no verifying severe-criteria reports, and only one slightly sub-severe, mesonet-measured 50 MPH wind gust in Beaver City. Between 9:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. CDT, the intensity of storm cores weakened, but convection expanded in coverage across much of the 24-county area, featuring pockets of moderate to heavy rain and spotty wind gusts up to 50 MPH. By 12:30 a.m. CDT on the 4th, the overall-strongest storms/heaviest rain cores were focused over counties along the Highway 281 corridor, while the back end of the convective complex had already departed several southwestern local counties. During the next hour, the aforementioned low-topped supercell near the southern end of the larger-scale stratiform rain shield abruptly intensified and produced the Hall-Merrick County tornado, with briefly-intense radar rotational signatures (including a distinct debris ball on the Correlation Coefficient product) steadily weakening as the storm approached central Merrick County. Finally, between 1:30-3:30 a.m. CDT, the overall-weak convective complex steadily vacated the remainder of South Central Nebraska off to the east-northeast, with only a few lingering showers/weak storms hanging on through night's end. As it turned out, aside from the very limited area directly impacted by the EF1 tornado, the vast majority of South Central Nebraska simply had a rainy/stormy night with widespread and much-needed rainfall. The majority of (but not all) of the 24-county area picked up at least 0.25-0.75, with more limited 1-2 totals and even some very spotty 2-3+ amounts in northern Valley/Greely counties (including 3.25 in Spalding per an NeRAIN observer). ||Wrapping up with a closer look at the meteorological/mesoscale background of this event, forcing aloft was seasonably-modest, featuring broad west-southwest flow aloft over NE...well downstream from a large scale trough centered over the Pacific Northwest coast. However, an embedded small-scale disturbance (potentially convectively-enhanced with time) was a player in the evening convective development as it lifted east-northeast from southwestern into central NE. At the surface, the late afternoon-evening of the 3rd featured steady south-southeasterly breezes of 10-20 MPH across the local area, maintaining a moisture-rich airmass featuring dewpoints well into the low-mid 70s F. As the initial scattered strong storms spread into the local area early in the evening, the mesoscale environment featured healthy mixed-layer CAPE of 2000-3000 J/kg, but only 25-30 knots of deep layer shear (limiting storm organization). Between nightfall and the occurrence of the Hall-Merrick County tornado a few hours later, instability values waned slightly (as is diurnally-typical). However, thanks to an increasing southerly low level jet (evidenced by 40+ knots at 850 millibars) and also a subtle enhancement of west-southwesterly mid level flow associated with the low amplitude wave/vort max tracking into central NE, especially low level shear parameters ramped up to concerning levels during the 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. CDT time frame, with 0-1 kilometer bulk shear reaching 30-40 knots and 0-1 km storm-relative helicity spiking to 300-400 m2/s2, forcing an associated uptick in composite indices such as Significant Tornado Parameter (STP). Most of the time, late night convection in South Central Nebraska becomes at least slightly elevated and unable to fully tap into such strong low level shear and resultant tornadic potential, but this event proved that rare exceptions and mesoscale accidents can occur, aided by the presence of a moisture-rich low level profile (12 a.m. CDT dewpoint of 73 F at Grand Island airport) and a low lifting condensation level (LCL) no more than 750 meters (fostering low storm bases).

While nearly all of South Central Nebraska experienced thunderstorms on this Tuesday evening, the majority of severe storms (significantly severe in places) concentrated within two distinct, northwest-southeast swaths mainly no more than 10-20 miles across...both associated with discrete supercells (one of which eventually morphed into more of a quasi-linear convective system/QLCS). The primary/longest corridor of severe weather primarily impacted the the following local counties: southern/western Sherman, northern/eastern Buffalo, southern/western Hall, northern/eastern Adams (including Hastings), southern/western Clay and much of Nuckolls/Thayer. The other notable (but shorter-in-length) swath of storm damage wrought havoc across parts of eastern Hamilton, southern/western York and northern Fillmore counties. Within each of these corridors, there were numerous reports of severe winds and/or large hail (some at least 2-3 inch diameter), causing countless instances of damage such as: broken windows in homes and vehicles, significant damage to siding/roofs, innumerable flipped irrigation pivots, and the destruction of many thousands of acres of young crops. In addition to the considerable hail/damaging winds that impacted several counties, one QLCS tornado was also confirmed in Nuckolls/Thayer counties (rated EF-0). This event marked the fourth-consecutive day of severe storms within the 24-county area, and was the overall most significant round of all. Duration-wise, this event was actually fairly quick-hitting, with all South Central Nebraska severe storms unfolding during a 3.5 hour span between 7:00-10:30 p.m. CDT...starting off in northern counties and eventually exiting far south-southeast counties. ||Digging deeper into storm reports, and starting with the QLCS EF-0 tornado, it was determined to have tracked for nearly 10 miles through southeastern Nuckolls/southwestern Thayer counties shortly before 10 p.m. CDT, causing tree damage in Ruskin and then destroying/damaging several grain bins, irrigation pivots and a few outbuildings before lifting north of Byron. However, by far the biggest impacts of the evening resulted from large hail/damaging winds. Within the aforementioned longer corridor of damage extending along a line from Sherman through Nuckolls/Thayer counties, a sampling of some of the more noteworthy reports included: 2.5-3.5 diameter hail and 70 MPH winds in the Litchfield and Hazard areas (considerable window/siding damage); hail stones 2-4 diameter through the Ravenna/Pleasanton areas (considerable window/siding damage including shattered windows on a few fire trucks); combo of hail 1.75-2.50 diameter and measured 66 MPH winds in Hastings (considerable window/siding damage especially on north/west sides of the city); widespread 60-70 MPH winds through southern/western Clay County with over a dozen toppled irrigation pivots; wood frame outbuilding destroyed and a semi truck overturned near Hebron. Within the shorter swath of concentrated damage that tore through Hamilton/York/Fillmore counties, various reports included: a semi truck blown over on Interstate 80 and areas of complete crop destruction and many overturned irrigation pivots due to a combo of 60-70 MPH winds and hail up to 2 diameter (particularly in the Hampton, Henderson and McCool Junction areas). While these two main swaths accounted for the vast majority of South Central Nebraska storm reports during the evening, there were also a few more isolated pockets of severe weather well-removed from both of them. These included a mesonet-measured 64 MPH wind gust near Lexington and also a handful of reports associated with a supercell that barely skirted the northeast fringes of the local area (including golf ball size hail near Genoa and a measured 65 MPH gust near Shelby (with pivots reported overturned). ||Examining event evolution/timing, the first scattered storms of the evening (initially non-severe) formed between 6-7 p.m. CDT along a west-east oriented band across far northern local counties. Then, the action really ramped up/intensified during the next hour as: 1) a long-lived supercell that developed several hours prior in the northern NE Panhandle entered the local area into Sherman County (the beginning stages of the primary swath of severe weather)...2) a new intense supercell flared up over central/eastern Hamilton County (along the southern fringes of the initial weak northern activity)...3) another comparably shorter-lived supercell developed out of the eastern fringes of the northern storms and clipped the northeast fringes of the local area in Nance/Merrick/Polk counties. Between 8-10 p.m. CDT, the two primary South Central Nebraska supercells continued east-southeast, with the eastern one exiting the local area out of York/Fillmore counties, while the western one gradually merged with a developing convective line that extended off to its west-southwest. Shortly after this powerful storm tore through eastern Adams/western Clay counties, a gradual storm mode transition from semi-discrete supercell to small-scale severe QLCS was complete, leading to a reduced large hail threat but a continued threat of damaging winds (along with the aforementioned tornado). Finally, between 10-11 p.m. CDT the main QLCS segment over Thayer County, along with weaker linear storms trailing westward along the Nebraska-Kansas border, completely exited South Central Nebraska to the south-southeast, ending a very active 3-4 hours. Wrapping up with a closer look at the meteorological setup, this event was the grand finale to a multiple-day stretch of at least spotty severe storms within South Central Nebraska. But compared to prior days, forcing was stronger both aloft and at the surface, leading to an overall-more impactful event. In the mid-upper levels, west-northwest flow prevailed, featuring a fairly potent (albeit low amplitude) shortwave trough zipping eastward across northern NE/southern SD during the afternoon-evening. At the surface, the day began with an initially weakly-defined, west-east oriented front draped across southern portions of the local area. But during the evening, this boundary sharpened up and made a more pronounced southward surge into Kansas in response to a combination of pressure rises driven by the aforementioned upper wave and also convective outflow. Although quite a bit of daytime cloud cover helped hold afternoon temperatures across most of South Central Nebraska down in the mid-upper 70s (F) and low level moisture levels were only only seasonably-modest (dewpoints low-mid 60s F), an impressive combination of strong deep layer wind shear of at least 50-60 knots and mixed-layer CAPE of 1000-2000 J/kg clearly supported higher-end severe weather. From a forecast/messaging perspective this was a well-anticipated event, as SPC's second Day 2 Outlook (issued on the 6th) upgraded most of South Central Nebraska to an Enhanced Risk (level 3 of 5), with this Enhanced category then maintained throughout the subsequent Day 1 cycle.

Major severe weather event unfolds across south central Nebraska during the afternoon and evening of May 12th, including wind gusts of 80 to 90 MPH. The most significant severe weather event of May 2022 occurred on a Thursday in which multiple rounds of thunderstorms wreaked havoc on essentially all of south central Nebraska at some point. The most intense severe weather, by far, was the first round. This activity actually developed over portions of west/southwest Kansas during the morning hours and moved northeast. Rapid intensification took place between 1PM and 2PM CDT as thunderstorms organized into a long line, and the first Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were issued for areas from Phillipsburg, KS to Lexington, NE. Initial storm reports ranged from quarter to ping pong ball size hail with the southern portion of the line, to widespread damaging wind gusts with the northern portion of the line across a large portion of Dawson County. Wind damage consisted of overturned pivots, uprooted trees, broken power poles, fence and roof damage, large tree limbs downed. Wind damage was widespread over central and western Dawson County where measured wind gusts of 60-70 MPH were common. Even an 82 MPH gust, which is considered ���significant severe���, was measured by a mesonet near Eddyville. Surface temperatures near 90 degrees and mixed layer CAPE values in excess of 3000 J/kg ahead of the line of thunderstorms, amidst 35kt to 50kt of southwesterly deep layer shear, allowed for continued intensification through the mid to late afternoon as the line raced northeast. Additional significant damaging wind impacts were felt across Sherman, Valley, and Greeley Counties. Valley County was another area especially hard hit. Here, several wind gusts in the 80-90 MPH range were reported, and damage was significant. Numerous trees were uprooted, pivots overturned, and outbuildings and grain bins destroyed. Another destructive aspect of this storm is that it also produced ping pong ball sized hail that was blown by the intense winds. This resulted in significant window and body damage to cars, as well as roof, siding, and window damage to homes. Additional significant wind damage was reported in and around Burwell (just barely outside this coverage area). The first round of thunderstorms exited north/northeast of the area around 3:30PM CDT, but the next round was ���hot on its heels���, and entered southern Nebraska around 4PM CDT, and quickly became severe. In fact, brief, but intense, circulations were noted on radar for a time just south and southeast of Hastings. This round affected mainly areas along and east of Highway 281. Since this region was spared from the first round, and a similar thermodynamic and kinematic environment was still in place, it���s no surprise that this round also intensified enough to produce ���significant severe��� wind gusts, most notably in a swath from Clay County northeast to Polk County. Several more 60-70 MPH wind gusts were reported in these areas, causing more overturned pivots, downed power lines, and damage to roofs, outbuildings, and grain bins. Also, intense wind gusts moved over Interstate 80 in Hamilton County, causing multiple overturned semis. This second round exited into eastern Nebraska and out of the Hastings CWA around 7PM CDT. The third and final round began to affect areas along and east Highway 183 between 7PM and 8PM CDT. The majority of this activity remained sub-severe as the greatest instability had been used up by the two previous rounds. However, a marginally severe wind gust of 59 MPH was measured at the Hastings airport shortly before 8PM. Thereafter, weakening ensued as the line became strung out and forward propagation slowed. Thunderstorms finally exited south central Nebraska between 11PM and midnight, ending a roughly 10 hour stretch of seemingly never ending severe weather!||Meteorologically speaking, this event was driven by a particularly volatile combination of intensifying shortwave ejecting from the central Rockies into the northern Plains, very unstable airmass (MUCAPE of 3000-4000 J/kg at it���s peak), and strong deep layer shear driven by 500 mb speed max of 60-70 kt. While this setup is not unheard of for mid-May, it���s certainly not very common, and for three distinct waves of thunderstorms to move through in a 10 hour period (two of which contained significant severe weather phenomena) is also not very common. From a regional perspective, the Hastings CWA was the developing grounds for a significant derecho that would propagate into the Northern Plains and Upper Mississippi Valley and go on to produce hundreds of measured severe wind gusts and wind damage reports, of which over 60 were considered ���significant severe���. Over 75 hail reports and nearly three dozen tornado reports were also reported, with the majority of tornadoes occurring in SD and MN. For 2022, this will likely be remembered as one of the most severe convective events of the year, both locally, and across the greater region.

This Thursday marked the second straight day of intense north-northwest winds across South Central Nebraska, but overall a bit worse than the previous day, as most of the daylight hours featured relentless sustained speeds commonly 30-45 MPH and frequent gusts 50-60 MPH (with sporadic higher peak gusts up to 68 MPH). Although for the majority of the 24-county local domain these severe winds and associated areas of blowing dust were the most impactful stories of the day, within Gosper/Furnas counties a large and historic wildfire took center stage during the afternoon and evening, remaining in the regional news headlines for several days while being gradually contained. Fueled by a nasty combination of extreme dryness and the severe winds, this blaze (dubbed the Road 739 Fire) scorched approximately 35,000 acres along a nearly 22-mile long and mainly 2-4 mile wide swath, making it the largest wildfire in at least many decades within South Central Nebraska. According to the Nebraska Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), eight residences were destroyed in the fire, along with as many as 50 outbuildings/minor structures. No injuries were reported from the actual fire, but tragically two traffic accidents involving emergency personnel occurred during the immediate fire response, including one that fatally injured the Elwood volunteer fire chief (for additional details regarding the Road 739 Fire please refer to the associated event narrative). Getting back to the larger-scale wind event that affected the entirety of South Central Nebraska, the highest official peak gusts from local airport sensors included: 63 MPH at Grand Island, 62 MPH in Hastings and 61 MPH at Ord. Per unofficial mesonet stations scattered throughout the area, peak gusts featured: 68 MPH near Cozad, 66 MPH near Red Cloud and Fairfield, and 65 MPH near Phillips and Kearney. There were no known reports of significant wind damage, but the combination of strong gusts and ongoing drought conditions promoted fairly widespread areas of blowing dust, greatly reducing visibility in various locations at least briefly. One of the more notable dust plumes affected the Interstate 80 corridor near Gibbon during the late morning, with highway cameras and traffic flow maps confirming very poor visibility and slow-downs. Sustained speeds finally eased down below 30 MPH (and gusts below 45 MPH) on a consistent basis by around 9 p.m. CDT on the 7th, signaling the end of back-to-back days of higher-end winds (although moderately-windy conditions continued for several more days). ||In the mid-upper levels, the main player in the intense winds continued to be a quasi-stationary and powerful/deep closed low churning over the Wisconsin area. At the surface, a nearly co-located intense low pressure center resided over WI during the day, although its central pressure slowly weakened from around 994 millbars to around 1000 millibars. Despite the gradual weakening of this primary surface low, if anything, conditions within the state of Nebraska were even more favorable for high winds than the preceding day. For one thing, the mid-day (18Z) west-to-east pressure gradient across the state was slightly stronger, registering around 17 millibars (ranging from 1011 millibars in far eastern NE to 1028 millibars in the western Panhandle). Furthermore, steep low-level lapse rates allowed efficient downward momentum transfer from aloft during the daylight hours, with wind speeds in the 850-700 millibar layer averaging 50-60 knots (roughly 5 KT higher than on the 6th). The high winds of April 6th-7th were only two of several notably-windy days during April 2022 across South Central Nebraska, as this ended up being the overall-windiest April since at least 1951 (per analysis of Grand Island airport data).

This Wednesday was only an opening act to many markedly windy days across South Central Nebraska during April 2022 (per analysis of Grand Island airport data this was the overall-windiest April since 1951). Primarily between the mid-morning and late afternoon hours, sustained northwesterly winds were commonly at least 30-40 MPH with frequent gusts 45-55 MPH, and there were a handful of measured High Wind Warning criteria gusts ranging from 58-62 MPH. The Hastings airport ASOS featured the highest official peak gust of the day (59 MPH), while a few peak unofficial gusts from area mesonets included: 62 MPH near Cozad, 60 MPH near Cairo and 59 MPH near Norman. Although there were no known reports of notable wind damage, the combination of strong gusts and ongoing drought conditions promoted fairly widespread areas of blowing dust, reducing visibility to one mile or less in various locations. The most concentrated plumes of dust focused within far west-southwest local counties (Dawson/Gosper/Phelps/Furnas/Harlan). ||In the mid-upper levels, the main player in what would end up being a two-day high wind event for the local area (along with the 7th) was a powerful/deep closed low churning over the northern Minnesota/Wisconsin region. At the surface, a nearly co-located intense low pressure center bottomed out around 988 millibars across MN/WI during the day. This placed the state of Nebraska in a favorable environment for high winds within the southwest quadrant of the large-scale low. At mid-day (18Z), an impressive west-to-east pressure gradient of around 16 millibars was noted across the state (ranging from 1004 millibars in far northeast NE to 1020 millibars in the western Panhandle). Furthermore, steep low-level lapse rates allowed efficient downward momentum transfer from aloft during the daylight hours, with wind speeds in the 850-700 millibar layer averaging 45-55 knots.

A historic onslaught of swift moving severe thunderstorms with embedded tornadoes, followed by several hours of severe gradient winds and areas of blowing dust/smoke (and even a touch of wind-whipped snow) unfolded within South Central Nebraska on this Wednesday afternoon-evening, with the local area serving as the initiation zone of what would not only end up being the most impactful convective event on record during the month of December for the state of Nebraska (far eclipsing Christmas Day 2016), but also for other nearby states including IA/MN. In fact, the nearly continuous swath of damaging winds that stretched from south central NE/north central KS northeastward into southeast MN/western WI was officially declared a serial derecho...the first December derecho on record in the United States. Including nine confirmed tornadoes in South Central Nebraska (and 19 others that occurred in eastern NE), there were 28 confirmed tornadoes within the state...a remarkable fact considering that prior to this day only five Nebraska tornadoes had occurred in December since 1950! Focusing exclusively on the local South Central NE area going forward, the nine tornadoes consisted of five rated EF-1 and four rated EF-0. There were also dozens of measured reports of damaging winds in the 60-80+ MPH range (both thunderstorm/non-thunderstorm), including a peak thunderstorm gust of 85 MPH at Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island and a peak non-thunderstorm gust of 77 MPH by an unofficial mesonet in southwestern Clay County. Fortunately, there were no reported injuries, despite countless instances of damage primarily to irrigation pivots, outbuildings, power lines/poles and trees. ||Breaking down event evolution/timing for the local area, first of all, even before convection flared up it was already an unusual/noteworthy December weather day given unseasonable warmth/humidity being pumped into the area on strong south winds. By late morning-early afternoon, southerly gusts were commonly 35-50 MPH as temperatures soared into the mid-60s to low-70s F (setting new Dec. 15th records in Grand Island/Hastings), accompanied by dewpoints surging at least briefly into the 50s F (mainly near/east of Highway 281). This set the stage for severe convection/tornadoes during the early-mid afternoon, as the squall line that eventually impacted all but a few far western local counties raced through South Central NE at an incredible average forward motion of 65-75 MPH. The squall line, which was still in its infant stages as it entered Harlan County out of Kansas shortly before 1 p.m., rapidly intensified/expanded in scope while reaching the Highway 281 corridor by 2 p.m., and then in the blink of an eye had all-but-exited the extreme eastern fringes of the local area (Highway 81 counties) by 3 p.m....wrapping up a brief-but-wild two hours of weather. As for the nine confirmed South Central NE tornadoes, they all occurred between 1:27-2:43 p.m. and had at-times-intermittent path lengths between 7-15 miles. The tornadoes concentrated within counties mainly situated between the Highway 92 and Highway 6 corridors, touching down as far west as eastern Kearney/Franklin counties and as far east-northeast as Hamilton/Polk counties. The circulations were firmly embedded within the aforementioned squall line, making these quasi linear convective system (QLCS) tornadoes with often-intermittent damage paths. As is typical of such tornadoes, there was little in the way of clear cut photographic/video evidence, with the main exception consisting of a more classic looking photo of an EF-1 near Marquette. Although specific details regarding each of the nine tornadoes can be found in their respective event narratives, the vast majority of damage occurred to irrigation pivots, power poles/lines and a handful of outbuildings/grain bins, including a few fairly large metal outbuildings that were partially or completely demolished within only a few miles of communities such as Hastings, Marquette and Polk. Fortunately, no homes suffered major damage, although a few sustained relatively minor roof/siding issues. And although there were no reported injuries, one family north of Hastings had a fairly close call as their sport utility vehicle had several windows blown out of it only about one minute after they arrived home and sought shelter. Although straight-line thunderstorm winds along the surging line took a publicity backseat to the tornadoes, there were dozens of reported measured/estimated gusts of at least 60-70 MPH, and a handful of measured gusts as high as 75-85 MPH, highlighted by 85 MPH at Central Nebraska Regional Airport (official) and unofficial mesonet gusts of 84 MPH near Shickley, 83 MPH near Davenport and 81 MPH near Oxford. As just a sampling of damage attributed to convective winds: a blown-over semi truck on Highway 6 near Hastings; an overturned pickup truck and trailer along I-80 near Grand Island; significant roof and siding damage to a brick building in downtown Giltner; a metal outbuilding largely destroyed near Fullerton; a carport lofted into power lines in Bruning. Lastly in the convective department, hail was a minimal issue for the vast majority of South Central Nebraska. However, stones up to golf ball size significantly damaged a home near Marquette, while slightly smaller, wind-driven hail up to quarter size was reported in the Grand Island and Hastings areas, including a report of considerable damage to siding, fences and shingles in the Lake Hastings area.||Turning to non-convective severe winds, for the majority of South Central Nebraska they peaked in intensity a few hours after the passage of the squall line (and also impacted those few far western counties that were spared by convection), ramping up initially from the southwest and eventually west-northwest behind a surging composite cold front/dryline. Generally speaking, roughly the southwestern half of the local area observed its strongest non-convective winds between 2-7 p.m., while the northeastern half of the area peaked more so 4-9 p.m. However, the entire area endured at least a few hours of sustained speeds commonly 30-45 MPH and sporadic gusts of 50-70 MPH, including official peak gusts of 73 MPH at Hastings and Ord airports, and unofficial peak mesonet gusts of 77 MPH near Glenvil, 76 MPH near Davenport and 75 MPH near Norman. Although these non-convective winds undoubtedly caused considerable minor damage and/or exacerbated damage already done by earlier convective winds, specific reports were actually quite limited. However, one unique highlight of these southwesterly-turning-westerly winds is that they shrouded much of the local area a under an eerie pall for a few hours during the mid-late afternoon...a combination of blowing dust (emanating off the western High Plains) and also smoke (from large wildfires in northern KS) that reduced visibility to under a mile in some spots. Fortunately, no wildfires were sparked within South Central NE itself, despite favorable conditions for large fire growth behind the dryline (especially in southwestern counties). The final severe-criteria gust of the evening (59 MPH) occurred in Nance County shortly after 7 p.m., and gusts eased down to only 30-40 MPH within most of South Central NE by 10 p.m.||The last weather element of this multi-faceted event (and ironically of least-overall impact for December) was snow, as far western/northwest portions of the local area observed roughly a one-hour period of wind-whipped snow between 3:30-5:30 p.m. as a weakening deformation zone on the backside of the system clipped parts of mainly Dawson, Sherman, Valley and far western Buffalo counties. Although total accumulations were mainly at-or-below one-half inch and there were no reports of significant travel impacts, the fact that this snow band prompted brief, greatly-reduced visibility reductions along Interstate 80 prompted the first-ever Snow Squall Warning issuance within South Central NE.||Examining the meteorology behind this event, this would have been considered a powerhouse setup for severe convection/high winds during the more typical spring season usually associated with this type of system, let alone in mid-December. In the mid-upper levels, not only was the parent, negatively-tilted shortwave trough notably intense as it slammed across the central United States, but it was also notably fast. At daybreak, its vorticity maximum was just passing by the Four Corners, but by mid-day it had already reached the NE/CO/KS border area and by sunset had advanced into far northeast NE. At the 500-millibar level, a stout jet streak of 100+ knots nosed into South Central NE from the south-southwest during the afternoon, while lower in the column a potent southerly low level jet (evident at 850 millibars) ramped up to 40-60 knots. At the surface, a vigorous low pressure center sliced across the heart of Nebraska from southwest-to-northeast during the afternoon, deepening to around 984 millibars along the way and driving a sharp dryline/cold frontal combo eastward through the area. As mentioned, surface dewpoints climbed into the 50s F across much of the area prior to convective initiation, fostering a corridor of mixed-layer CAPE up to 500-1000 J/kg. Although somewhat modest instability values by warmer-season standards, in this case it was more than enough to promote robust severe convection in the presence of extreme wind fields, with embedded QLCS tornadoes no surprise given 0-1 kilometer bulk shear around 40 knots and effective storm-relative helicity (SRH) around 200-300 m2/s2. In the wake of the squall line, the ensuing non-convective wind event corresponded to a zone of deep subsidence (likely associated with a sting jet) and a pronounced surface pressure gradient on the backside of the departing low, with a 16-millibar gradient noted across South Central NE at 6 p.m. (ranging from 988 mb at Columbus to 1004 mb at McCook).||Closing with some comments about official NWS forecasts leading up to this historic event, there was excellent awareness several days in advance regarding the likelihood of powerful non-convective winds both ahead of (southerlies) and behind (westerlies) the intense surface low pressure system. An area-wide High Wind Watch was issued early on the 13th (48-60 hours in advance) and was subsequently upgraded to a High Wind Warning early on the 14th. However, what was not as well anticipated (both at the local and national forecast level) was how great of a convective/tornado threat South Central NE would face, as the fast-tracking squall line ended up forming slightly earlier and several counties farther west than most model data suggested (especially 12+ hours out). As a result, there was a noticeable ramp-up of convective threat categories within South Central NE on Dec. 15th SPC Day 1 Outlooks, progressing from the initial 06Z outlook that barely brushed the far eastern fringes of the area with a Marginal Risk (level 1 of 5), to the 1630Z outlook that correctly shifted Slight (level 2) and Enhanced (level 3) categories westward into several counties along/east of Highway 281.

Significant damaging wind event strikes south central Nebraska during the late evening hours of July 9, 2021. This event began well west and northwest of the Hastings County Warning Area (CWA), within the Nebraska Panhandle, during the late afternoon and early evening hours as a small cluster of thunderstorms. These thunderstorms became severe at various points during their eastward track across the Nebraska Sandhills through the evening, but it wasn���t until they reached the North Platte and Broken Bow areas around 9PM CDT that they became significantly organized and severe. This activity quickly moved into W and NW portions of the CWA between 9-10PM CDT, with the strongest thunderstorms and associated wind gusts focused across Dawson County. Wind gusts of 65 MPH to nearly 80 MPH were common across the county, which resulted in widespread tree damage and numerous power outages. Activity quickly grew upscale in terms of coverage and intensity as it shifted SE, and by 10 PM CDT, there was a solid line of thunderstorms from Nance County to Buffalo County to northern Gosper County that would prove to become a prolific damaging wind producer over the next couple of hours, including for the three largest cities in the Hastings CWA - Kearney, Grand Island, and Hastings. Wind gusts of 60-80 MPH were either reported or estimated in all of these areas. Not surprisingly, impacts were fairly significant, especially in terms of the overall scope of tree damage and power outages, including snapped power poles and healthy trees that were snapped off near the ground. Some of the trees fell onto homes and vehicles. In Kearney, a roof was partially torn off a movie theater, which also led to extensive water damage due to the torrential rain. Conditions became treacherous along Interstate 80 as the strong wind gusts on the leading edge of the thunderstorms led to overturned semi-trucks, other trailers, and campers, as well as very limited visibility due to blowing dust. As the line of thunderstorms moved east of Highway 281, some localized corridors of particularly intense winds, observed or estimated to be as high as 80-95 MPH, developed across portions of eastern Hall County, southern Hamilton County, and northern Clay County between 10:30-11:30 PM CDT. The most intense wind occurred in a swath from around Central Nebraska Regional Airport, where an 84 MPH gust was measured, southeast towards areas near and south of Aurora, to near Giltner. Damage in these areas included: significant tree and power line damage, snapped power poles, flattened crops, overturned pivots, damaged or destroyed grain bins and outbuildings, and two blown over semi-trucks on Interstate 80. Some tree limbs fell on cars and buildings, and some minor roof and window damage occurred to a few businesses. Perhaps the most impressive damage was downed high-voltage transmission lines approximately 4 miles south of Aurora where they cross Interstate 80. This led to traffic issues in the area for a time. Similar tree, power line, crop, irrigation pivot, and grain bin/outbuilding damage was reported in portions of Clay County. The line of thunderstorms weakened slightly as they shifted E and SE towards the Highway 81 corridor between 11PM and midnight, though gusts of 65-75 MPH were still reported in York, Fillmore, and Thayer Counties. Most notable damage (other than tree and power line damage) were half dozen overturned pivots, flattened corn, and a tree falling on a car. Severe thunderstorms finally exited south central Nebraska by 1AM on July 10. When all was said and done, a nearly continuous swath of relatively concentrated wind damage 30 to 50 miles wide occurred from near North Platte, NE to areas just E/NE of Hebron, NE. Gov. Ricketts declared disaster declaration for 14 total counties in Nebraska, including Clay, Fillmore, Hall, Hamilton and York counties in our CWA, and it was ultimately approved by President Biden. Preliminary assessment by FEMA estimated over 30 million dollars in damages.||Meteorologically speaking, this complex of thunderstorms was not unexpected, though intensity forecasts were ramped up just hours before the onset. SPC outlooks increased from a ���Slight��� risk in the morning, to an ���Enhanced��� risk for the western half of the CWA in the 3PM CDT update. The ���Enhanced��� risk was expanded to include all of south central Nebraska with the evening update. Strong wind shear (effective shear 50-60kt) was a consistent feature of the forecast, with the primary uncertainty being low level moisture quality and how much instability there would be for storms to work with as they moved off of the High Plains. Ultimately, low level moisture, in particular surface dew points, were much higher than modeled. For example, surface dew points were well into the mid 70s across a large portion of central and south central Nebraska, vs. modeled dew points in the 60s. This discrepancy was likely due to strong evapotranspiration from irrigation and mature crops, as well as weak low level mixing. As such, instability was very strong with MUCAPE of 5000-7000 J/kg, and this continued well into the overnight hours. Downdraft CAPE was also high at around 1000-1300 J/kg. Not surprisingly, the Derecho Composite parameter peaked between 4-6, which was significant.

Mid-February 2021 unleashed a relentless blast of brutal cold, the likes of which South Central Nebraska had not endured in several decades. For the majority of the 24-county area, the 10-day stretch from the 7th-16th marked the overall-coldest 10 days in nearly 38 years...since December 1983 (based on average/mean temperature). In addition to various other official NWS stations (including both automated airport sensors and cooperative observers), this fact rang true for Grand Island and Hastings airports, where the 10-day average temperature from the 7th-16th was -4.7 and -5.5 degrees (F), respectively. Following are various other cold temperature tidbits specifically for Grand Island (126 years of temperature records) and Hastings (114 years of records), although very similar realities applied elsewhere within South Central Nebraska. At Grand Island, the average temperature between the 7th-16th was an incredible 33 degrees below the 30-year normal, as daily highs over the course of the 10 days ranged from -7 to +10, while daily lows ranged from -27 to +1. Furthermore, Grand Island notched nine straight days of sub-zero lows between the 8th-16th (longest such streak since Dec. 1989), and both Grand Island and Hastings spent OVER 60-CONSECUTIVE HOURS BELOW ZERO between the early morning of the 14th and the afternoon/evening of the 16th (had not happened since at least Feb. 1989). At Hastings, the high temperature of -8 on the 15th set a new February record for coldest daily high and was only one-degree short of the record-coldest high (for any month) of -9 set in Dec. 1989. Perhaps most impressively, Hastings plunged to -30 for the low on the 16th, tying its all-time coldest reading first observed way back in Jan. 1912. A few long-time NWS coop observer stations actually set outright all-time coldest low temperatures on the 16th, including York (-34), Superior (-33) and Osceola (-31). Greeley and Ord airport (ASOS) matched the York reading of -34 for the outright-coldest official temperature of this particular cold snap. Factoring in winds (albeit relatively light through the majority of the 10-day period), the most frigid wind chill readings occurred between the evening of the 14th and the morning of the 16th, prompting a long-fuse Wind Chill Warning for all of South Central Nebraska. On both mornings of the 15th and 16th, dozens of automated stations (official and unofficial) recorded wind chill values well down into the -30 to -45 range, and even a few that breached -50. While each morning registered fairly similar and dangerously-cold values area-wide, the morning of the 15th featured both the coldest known official wind chill (-54 at Ord airport ASOS) and unofficial wind chill (-55 from a NDOT sensor two miles south of Elm Creek). ||Focusing on impacts, the local South Central Nebraska area was just a small portion of an expansive swath of the central and southern United States that battled this historic cold, as sub-freezing temperatures surged all the way into south Texas (even promoting a light coating of snow at Galveston). This cold outbreak put a considerable strain on not only the local, but especially the regional power and energy industry. While South Central Nebraska avoided more serious/longer-lasting power disruptions that ravaged many southern states, fairly brief rolling blackouts (typically around 30 minutes) occurred within the area on the 15th-16th, as called for by the Southwest Power Pool (the independent regional transmission organization that manages the electric grid and wholesale power market for portions of 14 central and southern states, including Nebraska). Turning to the large-scale meteorological picture, this prolonged/intense cold outbreak was driven in the mid-upper levels by a parade of troughs circulating around a quasi-stationary parent vortex churning over southern Canada, each one further reinforcing/intensifying the magnitude of Arctic air allowed to spill southward through the central United States. At the surface, persistent, predominantly northerly flow prevailed for days on end as a sprawling Arctic high increasingly-dominated much of the central and northeastern United States. Also contributing to the magnitude of persistent cold in South Central Nebraska was increasingly-deep snow cover, as a series of snow events gradually boosted the average snow depth across the area from generally 2-5 inches on the 5th (just prior to the onset of the Arctic outbreak) to a widespread 10-15 inches by the 15th-16th (during the heart of the very-coldest readings). Concluding with a brief rundown of how South Central Nebraska finally crawled out from underneath the 10-day crush of ruthless cold, improvement finally got underway on the 17th and trended upward for several days thereafter, with high temperatures at Grand Island/Hastings recovering into the teens on the 17th, 20s on the 18th-19th, 30s on the 20th-21st (ending a 15-day sub-freezing streak), 40s on the 22nd and finally into the 50s on the 23rd (some parts of South Central Nebraska even reached the 60s that day).

Intense low pressure system brings prolonged period of strong to severe wind gusts to south central Nebraska from the early morning hours on the 14th, though the afternoon on the 15th. The initial surge of strong wind gusts of 50-60mph occurred along and behind of a strong cold front that was associated with an intense (sub-990 mb) surface low pressure near the North Dakota/Canada border. This initial surge of northwesterly wind gusts arrived during the early morning hours of January 13th, between midnight and 2am. Wind gusts weakened for a period early Thursday morning before increasing once again during the mid to late morning as the primary surface low dropped southeast from northern MN into northeast IA. The strong winds were the result of steep low level lapse rates and efficient mixing into an intense low level jet. The deep mixing also resulted in low relative humidity values near 20 percent, which when combined with the intense winds, produced dangerous fire weather conditions across south central Nebraska during the afternoon of the 14th. A Red Flag Warning was in effect when a large wildfire started in Webster County. This wildfire spread rapidly in the strong winds and travelled nearly 9 miles before being contained in western Nuckolls County. The main impacts were the burning of around 7000 acres and a few residential evacuations, however, no major structures were impacted and no injuries were reported. ||Wind gusts up to 65mph are not terribly unusual for this area, but what set this system apart from many others was the long duration of strong winds - around 24 to 36 hours! In fact, despite many areas reaching High Wind Warning criteria on Thursday, March 14, the majority of south central Nebraska actually experienced their peak wind gusts from this event during the morning hours of the 15th, in which 65 to 70 mph gusts were measured. Damage and impacts from the high wind were fairly typical, generally ranging from tree and power line damage to some roof damage. There were no known widespread or long-lasting power outages from this event at the time of this writing.

Thanks to a somewhat-unexpectedly potent combination of intense northwest winds and relatively-minimal snow, mainly the daytime hours on this Wednesday featured several hours of near-blizzard to outright-blizzard conditions across most of South Central Nebraska, shutting down several highways for a time and snarling pre-Christmas travel. Various law enforcement agencies reported dozens of traffic accidents and slide-offs (fortunately none fatal within the local area) and the following main highways were reported closed at various times: Interstate 80 between York and Kearney, Highway 281 between Grand Island and Hastings, Highway 30 from Grand Island-Kearney, Highway 34 from Grand Island-York, Highway 6 from Hastings-Kenesaw and Highway 81 near Shelby (all had re-opened by late afternoon). In Adams County, snowplows were pulled off the road for several hours due to very poor visibility. As for areal coverage of white-out conditions, the worst/longest-lasting issues focused within counties both along/north of Highway 6 and also along/east of Highway 183 (including the Tri Cities). Within this area, most places endured at least semi-frequent blizzard conditions for 6-8 hours while accumulating 1-3 of snow, while far northern counties (such as Valley/Greeley) saw blizzard conditions for as long as 10-12 hours and received slightly-higher snow amounts up to 3-4. Meanwhile, the situation was not as severe within far southern/southwest counties especially near the Kansas border, where snow was lighter/less-intense compared to farther north (amounts mainly under 1) and didn't last as long. Although the magnitude of wintry precipitation/blizzard impacts varied somewhat across South Central Nebraska, all 24 counties dealt with at least 9-12 hours of feisty northwest winds, commonly sustained 30-40 MPH and gusting 45-60+ MPH. A few of the highest official peak gusts at airports included: 76 MPH at Ord and 61 MPH at Grand Island, Hastings and York. While there were no known reports of substantial wind damage, NWS observers near both Arcadia and Shelby noted that several small tree branches were downed. ||Getting into more detail regarding event timing and meteorological background, the main driving force in the mid-upper levels was the passage of a deep, slightly-positively-tilted trough, with its primary vorticity maximum tracking from the Central Rockies on the evening of the 22nd, and then across the heart of Nebraska-Kansas during the day on the 23rd before departing into the Upper Midwest/Upper Great Lakes through the evening-overnight. At the surface, the associated low pressure center gradually intensified from around 994 millibars as it crossed Nebraska during the overnight-early morning of the 22nd-23rd, to 988 millibars by mid-day in the IA-MN-WI border area, and then maintained intensity while reaching Lake Superior overnight. Locally, the initial surge of strong northwest winds crossed South Central Nebraska during the pre-dawn of the 23rd behind the main synoptic cold front, but gusts largely held under 50 MPH. The overall-strongest winds ended up occurring between mid-morning and mid-afternoon, corresponding to the peak surface pressure gradient between the departing/deepening low and strong high pressure nosing in from the west-northwest (for a few hours the west-to-east gradient across the state of Nebraska averaged near 25 millibars!) As for snowfall timing, an initial, narrow band swept across most of the area during the pre-dawn hours, but the primary, broad zone of mainly light-to-moderate snow (with brief heavier bursts) gradually overspread South Central Nebraska from west-northwest to east-southeast during the morning, eventually departing in similar fashion during the afternoon. Actual falling/accumulating snow ended across most of the area between 2-4 p.m., but lingering blowing snow and ground blizzard conditions held on for a few more hours...until gusts diminished more consistently to around 30 MPH-or-less after nightfall. From a forecast review perspective, the intense winds and at least minor blowing snow impacts were fairly well-anticipated, as a High Wind Warning was issued for the entire area 12-18 hours in advance and a Winter Weather Advisory (for the majority of the area) was issued 6-18 hours out. However, especially the southward extent of accumulating snow and the resultant potential for all-out blizzard conditions was not as well foreseen (especially as far south as the Interstate 80/Highway 6 corridors), with several counties not placed under official Blizzard Warnings until rather late in the game. For sure, one of the biggest takeaways/reminders from this event was that even minimal snowfall can wreak havoc on travel in the presence of powerful winds.

A strong cold front and plentiful moisture combined to produce a mix of wintery weather and heavy rain across south central Nebraska on November 9th into the 10th. Strong southerly wind gusts from the previous day (see November 8th Storm Data entry) continued into the early morning hours of November 9th, which allowed for copious amounts of atmospheric moisture to advect into the region ahead of a cold front. The cold front moved through the area from northwest to southeast during the morning and afternoon hours, with little in the way of precipitation. The front slowed down by late afternoon as surface low pressure organized over the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles, and the cold front eventually stalled out from central Kansas to central Iowa, just southeast of the NWS Hastings County Warning Area (CWA). This resulted in a sharp temperature gradient at the surface across the area, with cold air in the 20s across northwest portions of the CWA, 30s to low 40s across the far southeast CWA, and the surface freezing line from north central Kansas to east central Nebraska. Later during the evening hours, showers and even weak thunderstorms blossomed as moisture and weak instability interacted with the stalled cold front and shallow low level cold air mass. This set the stage for a wintry mix of sleet and freezing rain across south central Nebraska during the evening hours of November 9th. Rain rates were impressive by November standards, and with surface temperatures below freezing, ice accretion began quickly. The greatest ice accretion occurred from around 8pm on the 9th until 2am on the 10th before mid level dry air was advected in from the southwest. The system was not done causing wintry weather across the area, however, as the surface and upper level low pressure ejected northeast from the southern High Plains into the Lower MO Valley and wrap around moisture brought a period of light to moderate snow during the morning hours of the 10, mainly after 4am. Several inches of snow fell across areas mainly north of Interstate 80, with the highest amounts of 4 to 6 inches observed in Greeley County. Only lingering light snow and flurries continued into the afternoon hours of the 10th.||Impacts from the ice were widespread from Webster and Nuckolls Counties northeast to Nance and Polk Counties, particularly in terms of tree damage, where ice accretion of at least one quarter of an inch was observed. Within the broader zone of ice damage, a smaller swath around 30-40 miles wide of more severe impacts appears to have occurred from Adams and Clay Counties northeast to portions of York and Polk Counties. This is where large tree limbs (10 to 15 inches in diameter) were snapped and where power outages were most common and long-lasting, some in excess of 24 hours (mainly rural areas). Also, some of the large tree limbs fell onto roadways and further complicated already hazardous travel conditions. A Cooperative Observer just northeast of Shelby, NE (in Polk County) reported ice accumulation as high as one half inch. School and business closures were numerous not only in the areas affected by ice, but also further north where snow was more prevalent. Meteorologically speaking, this event was impressive due to very high amounts of moisture, and even some instability, that overlapped with near or below freezing temperatures at the surface. Precipitable water values (PWATs) were as high as 1.0 to 1.2 inches, again, anomalously high for November. While this event was certainly towards the higher end of recent ice events, the area was fortunate it wasn���t worse for several reasons: 1) Rain rates, while impressive, were actually too high for optimal and efficient ice accretion 2) surface temperatures were generally one to two degrees too warm for optimal ice accretion 3) Surface winds were relatively light and 4) duration of ice accretion was limited to around 6 hrs. We can say with relatively high confidence that if even one of the above factors was worse, this event could���ve been much more severe. Finally, it's worth noting that for many, this was the most significant precipitation event in around two months, as many areas along and east of Highway 281 received 0.75��� to 1��� or more of moisture.

Two rounds of severe weather affected portions of south central Nebraska and north central Kansas the evening of July 10th into the early morning hours of July 11th. For the first round, thunderstorms initially formed near the South Dakota and Nebraska border during the early afternoon hours, then shifted southeast into central Nebraska and eventually the northwest portions of the GID CWA during the late afternoon and early evening. Most of the severe reports were associated with an intense supercell on the southwestern flank of a line of thunderstorms. This supercell tracked from just south of Valentine to Broken Bow before it entered the local area in Buffalo and Sherman Counties around 5:30PM CDT. Multiple reports of 50-60mph wind gusts were received, along with 5 ft tall corn being blown over in northern Buffalo County. This thunderstorm continued southeast and impacted Kearney with 60-70mph winds, including a 61mph gust at the Kearney Airport. Additional severe wind reports, and even some quarter to half dollar size hail, occurred in Kearney County before the system weakened as it neared the state line during the late evening. These thunderstorms were supported by MLCAPE values of 2000-3000 J/kg, steep mid level lapse rates, and very strong effective shear of 50-60kt. ||The next round of thunderstorms brought high winds to central and northern portions of the area between 11PM CDT on the 10th, and 1AM CDT on the 11th. This round of severe weather actually stemmed from thunderstorms that developed well northwest of the area, across southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, during the afternoon hours of July 10th. Weakening had been noted around midnight as the leading edge shifted into the northwest CWA, likely impacted by the remnant cool, drier outflow from the first wave resulting in decreasing surface based instability and increasing inhibition. However, a mesohigh quickly developed over north central Nebraska, which resulted in a rapidly increasing low level pressure gradient force and strong pressure rises. In fact, pressure rises on the order of 8-9mb/2 hr were noted at both Ord and Grand Island ASOSs. The pressure rises allowed strong wind to develop, despite an overall weakening trend within the convection itself. Multiple reports of 55-65mph wind gusts occurred with this second round of activity, impacting areas from Ord to Hastings, including Grand Island, east to the York area. The strong winds resulted in numerous downed tree branches and power lines. The pressure gradient and wind gusts gradually relaxed after 1AM, and any additional gusts remained sub severe.||The next round of thunderstorms brought high winds to central and northern portions of the area between 11PM CDT on the 10th, and 1AM CDT on the 11th. This round of severe weather actually stemmed from thunderstorms that developed well northwest of the area, across southeast Montana and northeast Wyoming, during the afternoon hours of July 10th. Weakening had been noted around midnight as the leading edge shifted into the northwest CWA, likely impacted by the remnant cool, drier outflow from the first wave. However, a mesohigh quickly developed over north central Nebraska, which resulted in a rapidly increasing low level pressure gradient force and strong pressure rises. In fact, rises on the order of 8-9mb/2 hr were noted at both Ord and Grand Island ASOSs. The pressure rises allowed strong wind to develop, despite an overall weakening trend within the convection itself. Multiple reports of 55-65mph wind gusts occurred with this second round of activity, impacting areas from Ord to Hastings, including Grand Island, east to the York area. The strong winds resulted in numerous downed tree branches and power lines.

Extensive line of thunderstorms brought widespread severe wind to much of south central Nebraska and portions of north central Kansas on this date. This event will likely go down as the most widespread severe weather event of the spring and summer of 2020 for the Hastings County Warning Area (CWA). Thunderstorms developed along a cold front across north central Nebraska, and also within a zone of low level upslope flow over western Nebraska and northeast Colorado, during the early evening hours of July 8th. Both areas of development initially contained both line segments and embedded supercells, posing risks for all severe hazards, but quickly organized into two separate lines of convection, or quasi linear convective systems (QLCSs). By 9pm CDT, one line extended roughly west to east from Thedford, NE to O'Neill, NE and was moving southeast, while the other line extended roughly north to south from near Thedford, NE to just west of McCook, NE and was moving mainly east. Shortly thereafter, both lines began to merge together into one coherent line. Thunderstorms began to enter far northern and western portions of the CWA around 10pm CDT. By this time, thunderstorms already had a history of producing 60 to 75 mph wind gusts and a few instances of large hail just northwest and west of the CWA. The line of thunderstorms strengthened and organized further as they shifted southeast into the CWA between 10-11pm CDT. In fact, an impressive bow echo developed over Gosper and Furnas Counties during this time and raced eastward, affecting areas primarily between Interstate 80 in south central Nebraska and Highway 36 in north central Kansas. Severe wind gusts remained the primary threat. The QLCS had taken on an ���S��� shape by 11pm CDT, slanting southwest to northeast. The greatest concentration of severe wind reports occurred over central and eastern portions of the CWA, roughly from Grand Island and Hastings eastward to York and Hebron, between 11pm CDT on July 8th and 1am CDT on July 9th as forward speed increased dramatically. Several wind gusts were measured between 70-75mph in this area, including a peak wind gust of 75mph in Thayer County. Not surprisingly, widespread wind damage was reported, as well, especially to trees, power lines, and crops. Downed tree limbs (medium to large size) and snapped small trees were fairly common. Power outages were also common across many small towns during the overnight and into the early morning hours, though an exact estimation of peak power outages is unknown. A few buildings also sustained damage, such as blown in doors and roof damage from fallen trees and lost shingles. Finally, a brief EF-0 tornado was determined to have occurred in Merrick County, with peak winds estimated to be around 85mph. Damage was limited. The leading edge of the QLCS, and associated peak wind threat, shifted east and southeast of the CWA by 1AM CDT, though lingering stratiform rain as well as a northwest to southeast band of thunderstorms near the state line continued for a few more hours. The only severe hail reported with this event was along the southwest flank of the QLCS over Furnas County, where thunderstorms continued to regenerate. A few instances of quarter to golf ball size hail was reported.||Meteorologically speaking, this severe wind event was driven largely by a cold front interacting with a strongly unstable airmass due to steep mid level lapse rates, strong heating, and moist boundary layer. Initially cellular activity quickly grew upscale into line segments owing to the linear forcing along the cold front and generally outflow dominated activity, with peak DCAPE values in excess of 1500 J/kg. The primary shortwave trough responsible for the cold front remained well north of the area, near the Montana/Canadian border, but several weak perturbations moving west to east over the cold front likely aided in thunderstorm development as well. A distinct mesoscale convective vortex, modest deep layer shear of 30-35 knots, and an intensifying southerly low level jet up to 45 knots sustained the severe convection well past sunset. Finally, it's worth noting that an impressive surface pressure rise/fall couplet of at least 3mb/2hr accompanied the QLCS across the CWA between 05Z and 07Z.

This was an active late Saturday evening-early Sunday morning of thunderstorms across much of South Central Nebraska, featuring several reports of large hail and especially damaging winds mainly between midnight-3 a.m. CDT as two storm complexes rolled through and eventually merged. Focusing first on severe winds, most estimated or measured gusts were in the 50-70 MPH range and associated with primarily tree damage. However a few isolated structural damage reports were more suggestive of at least 75-80 MPH, including: 1) 10 power poles blown down and three grain bins destroyed (along with some overturned irrigation pivots) west of Aurora...2) grain bin damage and overturned pivots north of Minden. Hail was more limited overall, but stones reached golf ball size at Pauline and ping pong ball size in Davenport, while Hastings saw nickel to quarter size hail. Rainfall amounts varied considerably (most of South Central Nebraska had less than one-half inch), but a fairly narrow swath of at least 1.50-2.50 targeted parts of primarily Thayer/Nuckolls/Clay counties, with one unofficial report as high as 3.17 near Belvidere. Flooding was fairly minimal, although one rural road along the Fillmore/Thayer County line still had water running across it around sunrise. ||As for storm mode/evolution, this was a somewhat complex event. The first local convection of the night entered the Furnas County area out of northwest Kansas after 11 p.m. CDT, in the form of a compact linear mesoscale convective system (MCS) on a weakening trend. But then, between midnight-1 a.m. CDT, a broken band of intense, semi-discrete storms erupted out ahead of this MCS along a west-east axis centered from Phelps-Adams-Thayer counties (likely in response to the onset of a healthy low level jet). However, these initially semi-discrete storms (which accounted for all large hail reports) quickly consolidated/grew upscale into a new linear MCS that charged north-northeast across the Highway 6/Interstate 80 corridors between 1-2 a.m. CDT, gradually merging with the initial MCS racing up from the southwest in the process. During the ensuing hour, the two complexes completed a full merger; the northern end weakening as it reached far northeastern counties (such as Nance/Polk), while the southern end remained severe through Fillmore/Thayer counties before departing the local area into southeast Nebraska. This ended any severe threat for the night, although weaker storms and broader showers persisted until around sunrise in some spots. This was a ripe setup for severe nocturnal storms, especially with the exit region of a 30-40 knot southerly low level jet (evident at 850 millibars) aimed into the heart of South Central Nebraska after dark, and tapping into a large reservoir of most-unstable CAPE as high as 2000-3000 J/kg. In the mid-upper levels, flow over the region was not overly-strong, but contained various low-amplitude disturbances and was in the process of transitioning more southwesterly in response to a larger-scale trough setting up over the northwestern United States. There were no distinct surface features across the local area, but steady light southeast breezes prior to storm initiation maintained seasonably-high dewpoints in the mid-60s to low-70 F. Likely one of the main limiting factors against a more robust severe threat was only modest deep-layer wind shear around 30 knots.

It's quite rare that widespread/severe NON-thunderstorm winds take center stage over thunderstorms during June in South Central Nebraska, but that's exactly what happened on this Tuesday as an anomalously strong low pressure system (by June standards) churned through the Central Plains. For the vast majority of the local area, the number one story was several hours of intense north winds, commonly sustained 30-40 MPH and gusting 40-60+ MPH in the wake of a powerful late-spring cold front. Based on a variety of official/unofficial sensors, some of the highest afternoon-evening gusts featured: 67 MPH in Doniphan, 65 MPH near Gothenburg, Roseland and Oxford, and 64 MPH at Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island. Other official peak airport gusts included 62 MPH at Hastings and 60 MPH in Kearney. These winds undoubtedly caused numerous instances of at least minor damage within the area, but a few known ones included: a large tree in Holdrege fell on a car and blocked a street; a few large branches in west Hastings crashed onto power lines and at least one house; downed power lines in Arapahoe and Harvard; 6-8 inch diameter tree limbs downed in Deshler. Although the overall-strongest winds started/ended several hours earlier in far western local counties compared to far eastern counties, for the majority of the area the worst winds concentrated during portions of the noon-10 p.m. CDT time frame.||Turning to thunderstorms, while non-severe activity was common across much of South Central Nebraska during the afternoon and evening, the vast majority of the area was spared severe storms. This was mainly due to the strong surface cold front passing through prior to robust development being able to get going (in fact most of the area had seasonably-cool temperatures in the 50s-60s during the afternoon). That being said, a few severe storms did flare up in eastern counties during the afternoon, including one elevated hailer that dropped stones to around golf ball size in the Henderson and Hampton areas. Farther southeast along the actual front, radar indicated severe wind/hail potential with near-surface-based storms in/near Thayer County, but there were no verifying reports (although gustnado activity was noted in far southeastern Thayer County). Rainfall-wise, 24-hour totals fell short of forecast expectations across the majority of the area, as most places measured less than 1 inch. However, a few localized pockets closer to 2 inches occurred primarily in portions of southern Thayer and southwestern Buffalo counties, including a very isolated bullseye of 2.80 at Hubbell.||Both in the mid-upper levels and at the surface, the intensity of this weather system was quite abnormal for June...more reminiscent of those that sometimes occur earlier in the spring. Aloft, a deep closed low slowly tracked from eastern CO around daybreak on the 9th to northeast KS by sunset, eventually departing the Central Plains into northern MO by sunrise on the 10th. The associated surface low center lumbered east across northern KS over the course of the day, deepening to around 993 millibars in the process. While the position and track of the surface low/cold front spared most of the area from severe storms, far southeast counties dodged a potentially significant threat during the afternoon as the environment just north of the northern KS surface low became conditionally supportive of supercells and possible tornadoes. In fact, mesoscale parameters in the Thayer County area briefly featured a potent combination of mixed-layer CAPE around 2000 J/kg, deep layer wind shear of 50-70 knots and 0-1 kilometer shear of 20-30 knots. As for the unusual nature of such intense northerly winds so late in the spring, it's worth noting that howling speeds of 50-70 knots a few thousand feet above the ground (at 850 millibars) registered 3-4 standard deviations above normal for the date...basically off the charts.

As mid-April Easter Sundays go, this one likely ranked as one of the overall-crummiest weather-wise in South Central Nebraska. While the entire area had relentless north winds and very cold temperatures, many places also experienced several hours of freezing drizzle and at least brief snow. In addition to (and resulting from) this combination of weather elements, several counties also endured fairly widespread power outages, both of the brief/intermittent and multiple-hour variety. These power-related issues mainly focused within a southwest-northeast swath through the heart of the area (including counties such as Franklin/Adams/Hall/Polk) as the nasty combination of strong winds and steady freezing drizzle coated power lines in ice, promoting pronounced line galloping and resultant outages/infrastructure damage. As just a few examples: the Grand Island Utilities Director called this one of the top-five worst power outage events of his career; and the Polk County Rural Power District reported at least 25 broken poles. Getting back to the weather itself, the entire day featured strong north winds, frequently gusting 40-50+ MPH. While peak gusts at official airport stations topped out slightly below severe-criteria, a few personal weather stations clocked 58 MPH, including one south of Kearney and another in Nelson. The vast majority of wintry precipitation occurred during the daytime hours, largely ending well-before sunset. Light-but-persistent freezing drizzle was the main issue, especially within the aforementioned, southwest-northeast corridor of counties that experienced the worst power outages. Most ice accretion targeted elevated surfaces (e.g. power lines), with only minimal road impacts given near-freezing surface temperatures. As for snow, the vast majority of the area only accumulated a light dusting of no more than one-quarter to one-half inch, although much of it fell in a short-but-intense burst as a narrow band swung through from west-to-east, briefly reducing visibility to as low as one-quarter mile. The main concentration of slightly higher snow amounts in the 1-2 range targeted Valley County in the far northern local area, as any truly-significant snow totals remained north-through-northwest of South Central Nebraska. Temperature-wise, the 12th was impressively-cold by mid-April standards, featuring daytime highs of only 31-35 F across most of the area (roughly 30 degrees below normal) and wind chill values only in the teens. In fact, this event ushered in a markedly-cold, six-day stretch centered from April 12th-17th. At Hastings airport, the average daily temperature over these six days of 34.4 F (16 degrees below normal) established a record for the overall-coldest six-day stretch so late in the spring.||Finishing up with the meteorological background behind this unpleasant Easter, the main player in the mid-upper levels was a large-scale trough traversing the central CONUS, highlighted by broad low pressure and various embedded disturbances extending southward from southern Canada, and also a potent southern stream shortwave trough ejecting east-northeast across Texas. Given that South Central Nebraska resided just south of the main northern stream disturbance, mid-level saturation ended up lacking somewhat, thus promoting more drizzle than snow overall. At the surface, a powerful cold front blasted through the local area during the pre-dawn hours of the 12th, turning the pleasant temperatures in the 70s F on the 11th into a fleeting memory. The intense north winds were driven by a stout pressure gradient between a roughly 997 millibar low tracking east across the Southern Plains and a 1032 millibar high emanating southeastward from the Northern Rockies.

High winds occurred behind a deep, occluded low on this Saturday. At daybreak, a 987 mb low was near Thedford, NE with an occluded front extending southeastward to near Beatrice to the triple point near Springfield, MO. Through the day, this low slowly migrated across the Sandhills to near Sioux City, IA by sunset. The tight pressure gradient in the western semi-circle of the low gradually enveloped the region resulting in strengthening winds. Winds were strongest from the late afternoon through the evening hours. During that time frame, northwest winds were sustained at 30 to 40 MPH, with frequent gusts between 45 and 50 MPH. Less frequent peak gusts were mostly between 55 and 65 MPH. The Ord airport measured the highest wind gust of 68 MPH, with 67 MPH measured at Cambridge, 64 MPH measured at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island, 64 MPH near Bradshaw, with 63 MPH in Hastings, 61 MPH at Pauline, and Nelson. As is typical for this part of the nation, there was very little in the way of damage or power outages. However, a single power line was reported down on the south side of Clay Center. The high winds may have been a factor in a fire that destroyed an equipment shed and a granary at a winery in Lexington. The Lexington Fire Department traced the fire back to power lines which began arching and sparking in the high winds.

Although its main damage swath was only about 15 miles wide, the narrow-but-intense severe storm complex that raced from northwest-to-southeast through the heart of South Central Nebraska during the pre-dawn hours on this Wednesday was one of the most impactful events of the local convective season. Quite simply, this was a nasty wind storm, packing a punch with gusts ranging from around 60 to nearly 90 MPH along and several miles either side of a line stretching from Ord-Grand Island-Hastings-Hardy. For the city of Grand Island, this was likely the overall-worst wind storm in several years, as the airport ASOS clocked a peak gust of 87 MPH. Countless trees/large branches were blown down within the city, along with several power lines, and there was also some (mainly) minor structural damage. Grand Island Emergency Center logged nearly 300 storm related incidents, including traffic hazards, power outages, alarms and fire concerns from sparking electricity. The storm also caused an (indirect) traffic fatality in rural Hall County southeast of Cairo, when a man crashed his pickup into a large, downed tree arched across a paved county road. To the south in Hastings, damage was less-severe overall, as the ASOS peak gust on the west side of town was only 70 MPH. However, stronger winds likely impacted areas just east of the city, as large trees were uprooted at Central Community College and several rail cars were reportedly blown over at a repair facility near the Clay County line. Several smaller communities also reported notable wind damage, including: Cairo, Alda, Wood River, Doniphan, Glenvil, and Fairfield. West of Clay Center, fairly extensive damage occurred on the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center campus, including broken windows and roof damage to several buildings. In addition to the aforementioned peak wind gusts at Grand Island/Hastings airports, some of the more notable unofficial (mesonet) gusts included: 85 MPH near Fairfield, 80 MPH near Alda and Wood River, 79 MPH in Doniphan and 73 MPH near Nelson. Despite the multitude of damaging wind reports, hail reports were quite scarce, as the vast majority of stones were likely dime size or smaller. Rainfall-wise, a fairly widespread coverage of 2-3 soaked several northern counties including: Valley, Greeley, Sherman, Nance and Merrick. Although resultant flooding was not very extensive in most of the area, the Mira Creek in southern Valley County breached its banks for the second time in five days, again prompting minor flooding on the north side of North Loup that continued into the early morning of the 8th.||Breaking down the timing and meteorological background of this event, it's worth noting that these South Central Nebraska damaging winds were actually the finale to a much longer swath of severe weather that initiated in southern ND and north central SD during the afternoon/evening of the 6th. Between 1-2 a.m. CDT on the 7th, the leading edge of this narrow-but-potent mesoscale convective system (MCS) entered far northern portions of the local area into Valley/Greeley counties, signaling its arrival with a 59 MPH gust at Ord airport. However, the worst was yet to come, as during the next few hours the storm complex morphed into more of an outflow-dominant, high-precipitation supercell, slamming through the Grand Island/Hastings areas between 2:30-3:30 a.m. CDT before eventually exiting Nuckolls/Thayer counties into Kansas by 5 a.m. CDT. In the wake of the main show, a few weaker clusters of storms redeveloped over parts of the area into the daylight hours, but were of little significance. In the big picture of the mid-upper levels, this event occurred within a fairly classic summertime northwest-flow regime, as the Central Plains resided northeast of an expansive ridge centered over New Mexico. At the surface, South Central Nebraska was on the backside of a weak ridge axis centered near the Nebraska-Iowa border. This promoted light-but-steady, south-southeast breezes in advance of the approaching storm complex, with surface dewpoints averaging mid-upper 60s F. Although there were question marks about how far southward into Nebraska the potential severe weather threat would extend, the combination of seasonably-stout flow aloft (deep-layer wind shear of at least 40-60 knots) and sufficient instability (mixed-layer CAPE of 1000-2000 J/kg) was clearly supportive of an intense late-night storm. Also enhancing the severe weather environment was a modest, 30 knot southwesterly low level jet (evident at 850 millibars) and its associated low-level warm air/moisture advection.

The overall most significant, widespread damaging wind event of the 2019 convective season wrought havoc across much of South Central Nebraska between the late evening of Thursday the 20th and around sunrise on Friday the 21st. The culprits were two separate linear mesoscale convective systems (MCS), with the first one by far the most impactful. This first storm complex, which traversed the area between 10:30 p.m. and 3 a.m. CDT, produced a swath of damaging winds ranging anywhere from 60 up to around 90 MPH, particularly within a corridor centered roughly 15 miles either side of a line from Cambridge-Minden-Hastings-Sutton. Within this area, there were countless reports of damage, particularly to the likes of trees (many large trees uprooted), power poles/lines and irrigation pivots, but also to some structures (mainly rural outbuildings). A short list of some of the hardest-hit communities included: Arapahoe, Oxford, Kenesaw and Hastings, with Hastings likely enduring its most widespread tree damage in roughly five years. As just a few specific instances of damage and/or measured winds: a grain bin and outbuilding were destroyed near Holbrook with irrigation pipe blown up to one-half mile; an unofficial mesonet gusted to 95 MPH near Oxford; several farm outbuildings were damaged/destroyed near Phillips with sheet metal hanging in trees. Within the Tri Cities, Hastings clearly bore the brunt of wind issues, as Grand Island and Kearney only received a glancing blow of sub-severe gusts mainly in the 40-55 MPH range. However, some places outside of the main damage swath still weren't spared from storm impacts, including in Farwell, where a lightning-induced fire damaged a portion of the fire hall. This primary linear MCS exhibited impressive radar signatures including a bookend vortex and rear inflow notch, with the system as a whole taking on a notable S-shape on reflectivity. As the initial MCS began departing the local area into eastern Nebraska, a second round of storms got underway back to the west, in response to lift above the residual cold pool. Although not nearly as intense/organized as the earlier system, this convection congealed into a northeast-southwest oriented MCS as it entered southwestern counties such as Furnas/Gosper/Harlan between 3:30-4:30 a.m. CDT. For a while, this second system remained slightly sub-severe, with peak gusts only to around 50 MPH (including 53 MPH at Hastings airport). However, some intensification to marginally-severe levels occurred between 5:30-6:30 a.m. CDT in far southeast counties, evidenced by mesonet wind gusts of 67 MPH near Superior and 60 MPH at Davenport. The back edge of this second MCS departed the local area out of Thayer County by 7 a.m. CDT, finally ending the rocky night. ||Interestingly, severe-criteria hail was very limited during this event, taking a clear backseat to damaging winds. However, a few quarter size stones were reported in and near communities such as Cambridge and Nelson. The Cambridge area was likely the hardest-hit, as copious amounts of mainly small hail combined with winds to promote fairly extensive crop damage. Rainfall-wise, the majority of South Central Nebraska measured between 0.50-1.50, holding flooding issues at bay. However, there were limited corridors of 2-3+, particularly within parts of Furnas/Gosper/Phelps counties. Including more rain that fell on the morning of the 22nd, Thayer County actually dealt with some of the worst flooding issues in the ensuing few days, such as water over several rural roads and a bridge washout north of Chester. ||Looking at the meteorological setup, this was a fairly classic recipe for intense overnight convection in the Central Plains. In the mid-upper levels, seasonably-strong, west-southwesterly flow was in place, downstream from a large-scale trough centered over the Northern Rockies. At the surface, South Central Nebraska resided just north of a west-east oriented front stretched near the Kansas border. As a low-amplitude disturbance entered southern Nebraska during the evening, this forcing combined with a very unstable airmass and increasing moisture convergence within the exit region of a 30-40 knot southerly low level jet to spark the MCS activity. By late-night standards, it was a fairly volatile mesoscale environment, featuring 2000-4000 J/kg most-unstable CAPE and 30-40 knots of deep-layer wind shear.

Numerous thunderstorms rumbled across much of South Central Nebraska on the evening of Saturday the 8th into the early morning of Sunday the 9th. While most of this activity was sub-severe, producing only small hail and/or wind gusts up to around 50 MPH, a notable exception occurred in several southwestern counties where a briefly-supercellular storm produced a flurry of severe-criteria wind gusts primarily between 8-9 p.m. CDT. These severe winds of mainly 60-70 MPH concentrated within northern Furnas, southern Gosper, northwestern Harlan and southern Phelps counties, including an intense (albeit unofficial) gust of 86 MPH clocked by a personal weather station north-northwest of Oxford. While ground-truth damage reports were limited, they included: 1) a power pole blown onto Highway 6/34 in Arapahoe along with several large tree limbs down around town...2) various reports of mainly minor damage in/near Holdrege, including: damaged power poles, a large tree down at the cemetery, and part of an irrigation pivot blown onto a rural road a few miles west of town. As this storm of the day progressed into eastern Phelps County it weakened while transitioning to more of a multicell cluster mode. However, storm intensity occasionally flared up farther east, as evidenced by estimated 55-60 MPH winds in southeast Adams County. Lightning also made the news during the evening, as a bolt from a non-severe storm in Grand Island blew out a roughly 5-by-5 foot section from the roof of a retail store, sparking a small fire. Somewhat surprisingly, there was no verified severe-criteria hail during this event, with the largest reported stones only nickel size.||Timing-wise, the first severe storms of the day in close proximity to (but slightly west of) South Central Nebraska erupted along a well-defined cold front in west-central Nebraska during the mid-afternoon. A few hours later, the first strong storm to affect the local area entered western Dawson County between 6-7 p.m. CDT, followed a bit later by the main, outflow-dominant severe cell that rapidly intensified over Gosper/northern Furnas counties. As the night wore on a few larger-scale, predominantly sub-severe storm complexes traversed much of the 30-county area, with most places eventually rain-free by 4-5 a.m. CDT on the 9th. Meteorologically, this was a fairly strongly-forced event. In the mid-upper levels, west-southwesterly flow was present, slightly downstream from a seasonably-strong, large-scale trough traversing the Northern Rockies. At the surface, the aforementioned, northeast-southwest oriented cold front gradually made its way through South Central Nebraska during the evening and overnight hours. Ahead of this boundary, the mesoscale environment was clearly supportive of severe storms, with early-evening parameters featuring around 2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and 30-40 knots of deep-layer wind shear. As a testament to the strength of the passing cold front, high temperatures across most of South Central Nebraska dropped from the mid-80s F on the 8th to only the upper-60s on the 9th.

Excessive rainfall, blizzard conditions, and high winds occurred on this Tuesday night, Wednesday and Thursday, and they were followed by extensive and significant flooding that lasted for days afterward. The seeds of the disastrous flooding were planted in the weeks leading up to this event. The factors that came together made this a worst case scenario. February through early March was bitterly cold and snowy due to a blocking ridge between Alaska and Hawaii and the downstream trough along the West Coast of the United States. The 32-day stretch from February 4th through March 7th was the third coldest on record, after 1936 and 1960. By itself, February was the coldest month in 18 years (since December 2001). Repeated snowfall events resulted in several inches of snow cover across all of south central Nebraska from the middle of February through the first 12 days of March. The deepest snow was over Valley, Greeley, Nance, and Polk counties with 10 to 17 inches on the ground. Sherman, Howard, Fillmore, and Thayer counties also had as much as 12 inches on the ground part of that time. Because of the excessive cold, extensive ice formed on all rivers and creeks, and the ground was frozen to a depth of 25 inches.||On Monday and Tuesday (March 11th and 12th), a low pressure system progressed through Arizona and New Mexico. Tuesday night, this low began rapidly deepening over Colorado. In just 15 h, this low deepened 24 mb from 994 mb to 970 mb. This low broke the all-time sea-level pressure record for the state of Colorado, with 970.4 mb at Lamar. The previous record was 975.0 mb on March 13, 1973. Precipitation over south central Nebraska fell in three periods. Scattered showers and thunderstorms first moved in Tuesday night followed by a large shield of stratiform rain Wednesday morning. Wednesday afternoon was predominantly dry as that area of rain lifted to the north and east. As the low advanced into Kansas, with a pressure of 975 mb, the warm occluded front moved north into south central Nebraska, along with the dry slot. Temperatures surged into the 50s and 60s. However, Arctic air was pouring into Nebraska on the cold side of the front. As destabilization occurred with daytime heating, rain developed and blossomed around the upper low. As this low moved into eastern Nebraska Wednesday night, the relatively small comma-shaped area of rain moved into south central Nebraska. For several hours, the deformation zone stalled along and west of Highway 281, further increasing rainfall totals. As cold air advection cooled the lower troposphere, the rain changed to snow. Thursday morning this area of snow moved to the east of Highway 281 and dissipated by midday. By sunrise Thursday, the surface low had filled, but was still 984 mb over western Iowa, with a 32 mb pressure gradient across Nebraska. High winds combined to produce blizzard conditions Thursday morning.||Widespread high winds occurred between 12 AM and 1 PM CST March 14th. Many locations gusted to 58 mph. The highest wind gusts included 68 mph at Ord, 67 at Cozad, 66 at Cambridge, 64 at Hastings, 63 at Grand Island and Johnson Lake, and 62 at Wood River and Ravenna. There were 18 gusts of 58 mph or more at the airport in Ord. Tree branches were snapped off nearby in Arcadia. Isolated power outages occurred due to a combination of the high winds and flooding.||Precipitation amounts from 8 AM CST on the 12th through 8 AM CST on the 14th were between 2 and almost 4 inches northwest of a line from Beaver City to Grand Island to Fullerton. Most of that fell as rain. The highest 48 hr precipitation amounts were 3.82 inches at St. Libory, 3.58 at St. Paul, 3.52 near Elba, 3.46 at Spalding, 3.12 at Greeley, 3.10 at Cairo, and 3.02 at Holdrege.||Snowfall amounts were generally 1 to 2 inches along and west of Highway 281, but a few locations were close to 3 inches. Kearney measured 3.2 inches, while Franklin, and Cairo measured 3.0, with 2.7 inches was measured in Arcadia. Despite the low amounts, blizzard conditions were fierce and were not depicted well by visibility sensors from area AWOS and ASOS stations. Visibilities were reported near zero.||The rain, combined with temperatures rising above freezing on the 12th, and remaining above freezing through the daylight hours of the 13th, including during the preceding night, resulted in very rapid snowmelt. In 48 hours, the snow depth at Greeley dropped from 10 inches to 2. At Arcadia, the snow depth dropped from 8 inches to 1. With the ground frozen, the water converted entirely to run-off. This resulted in the worst flooding in decades and, in some locations, the worst on record. The flooding was most widespread and damaging north of the Platte River. The flooding began Wednesday morning. Rivers and creeks and all their tributaries overflowed. This included the Wood River, the entire Loup River system, and the Cedar River. All low-lying areas were covered in water. Numerous Flood Warnings were issued and, by Wednesday night, the flooding was so widespread, that warnings covered all of south central Nebraska. In fact, Flash Flood Warnings were in effect at the same time Blizzard Warnings were in effect. Evacuations by boat were occurring in blizzard conditions the morning of the 14th. Due to the combination of flooding and blizzard conditions, many churches cancelled events on the 13th and 14th, and most schools cancelled classes on the 14th. Classes were also cancelled at all Central Community Colleges in Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings, Ord, Lexington, and Holdrege.||Widespread flash flooding occurred the night of Wednesday March 13th into Thursday the 14th. People were trapped in vehicles Wednesday evening after driving into flood waters on roads that crossed the Wood River in Buffalo county. Multiple rescues were necessary. Two cars were swept off the road into the swollen Wood River north of Kearney. One woman waited for a rescue team on the roof of her car. She was rescued using a jetski. A man was also rescued from a semi that was swamped by flood waters. The Loup Power Canal intake was overtopped by flood waters in Nance county. The Loup Power District enacted their emergency action plan necessitating the evacuation of the south side of Genoa. The hospital and nursing home were also evacuated. Highways were already closed in the area which complicated the evacuation. The Highway 22 bridge over the Loup canal was washed out at both ends, and a large break occurred on one side of the canal itself. A home was also swept away in the North Loup River just north of St. Paul. ||The impacts from this flooding were so immense, that it is impossible to document them all. Rivers and fields looked like lakes. Water covered hundreds of gravel and paved roads, including state and federal highways, making them impassable. Hundreds of roads (primarily gravel/county roads) were washed out or severely damaged, including some paved state and federal highways. U.S. Highway 30 was closed in both directions between Shelton and Alda due to flooding of the Wood River. Water 1 to 2 ft deep covered Highway 30 in Gibbon. Highway 30 was also closed from Silver Creek to Highway 81 due to flooding. Some of the most extensive damage to paved roads occurred to state Highways 14, 22, and 39 in Nance county. State Highway 14 was severely damaged with large chunks of pavement caved-in after the ground underneath was eroded away by swiftly moving water. In Hall county, 163 of the gravel roads were damaged. Preliminary cost estimates for repairing them was $2-3 million, with $700-800,000 to repair paved roads. The preliminary estimated cost to damaged roads and bridges in Buffalo county was $1.5-2 million, where ruts in some gravel roads were 2 to 3 ft deep. 150 miles of road and 8 bridges were impassible. In northwest Buffalo county, six homes could not be reached via gravel road. Homeowners had to drive through approximately one-half mile of pasture to get to and from their homes. At the peak of the flooding, so many roads were closed that Buffalo, Dawson, Howard, Phelps, and Sherman counties ran out of barricades. While flooding was most widespread and damaging north of Interstate 80, minor flooding also occurred in Gosper, Furnas, Phelps,Harlan, Kearney, Adams, Franklin, Webster, Nuckolls, Thayer, and Fillmore counties. North of Interstate 80, where the damage to county roads was the worst, schools had to adjust their schedules and bus routes as parents needed to drive their children to paved roads. Due to extended school closures from the flooding, some schools needed to extend the school year while others extended the school day to make up the time lost.||Dozens of bridges were washed out, primarily on county roads. Most of the washed out bridges were over creeks on gravel roads, but one was across the Middle Loup River south of Boelus. Bridges on paved roads were also affected. The bridge on state Highway 39, across the Loup River south of Genoa, was also washed out. Where bridges weren���t washed out severe erosion occurred to the abutments, even on some railroad bridges. Thirty-seven bridges were damaged in Howard county alone. ||As increasing flows on area rivers broke up the ice, ice jams occurred on the Middle Loup River near Arcadia and southeast of Rockville, on the Cedar River near Belgrade, on the upstream side of the Highway 14 bridge in Nance county, north of Fullerton. An ice jam on the upstream side of the bridge over Mud Creek, near Ravenna, was broken up by an excavator. Large slabs of ice were also deposited and jaggedly piled-up by flood waters onto bridges and adjacent road leading up to the bridges. Just south of Fullerton, ice covered the Highway 14 bridge over the Loup River, keeping it impassable even after flood waters receded. Flood waters on the Middle Loup River deposited slabs of ice the size of pickup trucks onto the Highway 68 bridge at Rockville.||Thousands of homes and businesses were damaged. Flooding was extensive in Dannebrog, Pleasanton, Gibbon, Wood River, and Alda. In the town of Wood River, water was 3 to 4 ft deep between 11th and 13th streets. Water was 5 to 6 ft deep in parts of Dannebrog. Ninety percent of that town was evacuated and the sewer system was shutdown. Post offices at Dannebrog, Elba, and Pleasanton were temporarily evacuated with mail operations moved to nearby post offices. People were evacuated in Belgrade, Dannebrog, Genoa, Gibbon, North Loup, Pleasanton, Shelton, and Wood River, some even by boat. Red Cross shelters were opened in North Loup, Boelus, and at the high school in Wood River.||Trains were also severely impacted. The Union Pacific (UP) railroad tracks between Gibbon and Columbus were shut down for several days. Rushing water eroded and washed out the bed underneath all 3 tracks in Gibbon. Six UP trains were parked at Central City and Clarks because they were unable to continue to their destinations. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) rail line from Litchfield to Ravenna to York was also shutdown for several days. Several miles of BNSF track was also damaged between Gibbon and Alexandria due to flooding along the Little Blue River. Options for rerouting trains was limited because the flooding was so widespread over eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Ethanol plants in Ravenna, Ord, and Central City were impacted and could not get ethanol to market because of damaged tracks. Passenger trains were also affected. The Amtrak trains that travel between Emeryville, CA and Chicago, IL were stopped in Denver and unable to make the trip east. Amtrak normally has scheduled stops at Holdrege and Hastings.||Record crests occurred on several creeks and rivers. The Turkey Creek at Dannebrog set a new record at 21.21 ft. The old record was 19.26 ft from June 12, 1984. The Loup River at Genoa set a new record at 16.10 ft. The old record was 13.9 ft on August 13, 1966. The North Loup River at Ord set a new record at 8.27 ft. The old record was 6.85 on June 10, 2010. At St. Paul, the North Loup River set a new record at 11.9 ft. The old record was 9.6 ft on June 22, 1947. The Wood River at Gibbon set a new record at 17.4 ft. The old record was 16.79 ft on June 15, 1967. Other significant river levels occur on the Wood River at Alda. The crest of 13.61 ft was the third highest on record behind 1967 and 2005. Mud Creek, just west of Ravenna, crested at 21.95 ft. This was the second highest crest behind 1947. The Cedar River at Fullerton crested at 15.99 ft which was the second highest behind 1966.||Despite the major flooding that occurred on the Wood River, from Gibbon to Alda, the Wood River Diversion at Grand Island worked as designed and protected the south side of Grand Island from flooding. A new record water level was set at the Wood River Diversion, though. Water crested at 18.15 ft which was higher than the 17.10 ft that occurred on June 8, 2008. The Wood River Diversion was completed in May 2004.||Impacts to agriculture were tremendous. As flood waters receded, pasture land and fields next to rivers and creeks were covered in sand and silt inches to feet deep, which ruined many acres for grazing. This flooding occurred in the middle of calving season. Hundreds of calves perished. Some reported livestock carcasses floating away. In some locations, cattle were isolated on islands. This combined with numerous damaged or flooded roads made travel to and around some farms impossible. Farmers in other parts of the country responded. Truckloads of hay were brought to Grand Island and staged at Fonner Park, from within the state, and from as far away as Ohio. One convoy of nine trucks delivered 200 tons of hay from Dickenson, ND to Fullerton. Hay also came from northwest Ohio to Pleasanton. Grain was also donated from farms in Ohio. Similar to the aftermath of the blizzard of January 1949, hay was airlifted by helicopters, from Fonner park, to stranded cattle in parts of Nance, Greeley, and surrounding counties.||Flooding continued until Saturday, March 23rd. Water levels gradually fell between the 15th and 23rd, with flooded areas decreasing. The most widespread flooding occurred from the 14th to the 18th, with major flooding (based on flood stage level) along the Wood River in Buffalo and Hall counties, the North Loup river, the Loup River, the Platte River from Grand Island along the Hamilton-Merrick county line, and minor flooding on the Middle and South Loup Rivers, the Cedar River in Nance county, the Republican River in Harlan, Nuckolls and Webster counties, and the Little Blue River in Clay and Nuckolls counties.||On Tuesday the 12th, Governor Pete Ricketts declared a state of emergency for the entire state in anticipation of the severe weather. In advance of the heavy snow that was forecast to fall from the Sandhills into western Nebraska, the Nebraska Department of Transportation preemptively closed Interstate 80 from Lexington west to the Wyoming border. Once travelers and trucks began filling up hotels and parking areas in Kearney, I-80 was closed all the way east to Grand Island. Highway 30 was also closed from Kearney west to the Wyoming border. ||Due to the magnitude of the flooding in central and eastern Nebraska, the State Emergency Operations Center was activated. Emergencies were declared by most counties in south central Nebraska. Governor Ricketts applied for and received a federal disaster declaration for Adams, Buffalo, Fillmore, Furnas, Gosper, Greeley, Hall, Harlan, Howard, Merrick, Nance, Nuckolls, Sherman, Thayer, Valley, and York counties. ||Damage estimates of property, buildings, roads, bridges, loss of livestock and stored crops, will not be fully assessed as of this writing. Preliminary estimates of damage to the entire state of Nebraska were expected to be more than $1 billion.

A fairly quick-hitting-but-significant winter storm and blizzard struck roughly the southeastern half (and especially southeastern one-third) of South Central Nebraska on this Saturday, serving as a grand finale to a nine-day stretch of active winter weather. This storm promoted several hours of white-out conditions and, unfortunately, resulted in a few noteworthy Interstate 80 accidents. The two main accidents within the coverage area occurred in York and Hamilton counties. Interestingly, both resulted in local emergency response vehicles being struck after arriving on the scene. The first larger crash unfolded a few miles east of York shortly before 3 p.m. and involved an estimated 30 vehicles, including at least 15 semi trucks. Upon responding to the scene, a Waco Volunteer Fire Department ambulance was struck by a semi, injuring four personnel, two seriously. A short time later, another crash occurred near Aurora involving approximately 15 vehicles, including 10 semis. During that incident, a large tanker truck belonging to Aurora Fire Department was struck from behind by a car, but no fire personnel were injured. As a result of these and other accidents, the Interstate was eventually shut down from Grand Island eastward to the Omaha area, not fully re-opening until early afternoon on the 24th. ||Focusing on the storm itself, there was a sharp, northwest-southeast divide in snow totals (and resultant travel impacts) across South Central Nebraska. This dividing line between minimal impacts and more serious issues set up roughly along a line from Franklin-Hastings-Osceola. To the southeast of this line, all areas measured at least 2-5, with especially Fillmore, Nuckolls and Thayer counties receiving higher totals of 6-9. In sharp contrast, most counties northwest of the aforementioned line received no more than 1-2, although parts of Furnas and Harlan counties did see up to around 3. Per dozens of CoCoRaHS and NWS cooperative observers, some of the highest official totals featured: 8.5 in Hubbell, 8.0 in Superior, 7.5 in Geneva and south of Shickley, and 7.2 in Hebron and near Blue Hill. In the Tri Cities, totals ranged from merely 0.4 at Kearney to 2.9 at NWS Hastings. Of course, winds were a major factor in the blizzard conditions, as sustained northerly speeds averaged 25-30 MPH with gusts commonly 35-40 MPH, frequently reducing visibility to around 1/4 mile or less in the hardest-hit counties. ||Breaking down timing, this was roughly a nine-hour storm for the area as a whole. The first moderate-heavy snow bands blossomed between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., peaked in intensity during the afternoon, and then gradually ended from west-to-east during the early-mid evening, with even the far eastern counties along Highway 81 mostly snow-free by 8 p.m. As it turned out, the duration of the strongest winds closely corresponded to the onset and ending of snow. In the mid-upper levels, this was a fairly classic recipe for a major winter storm/blizzard, as a powerful shortwave trough started off centered over the TX Panhandle on the morning of the 23rd, reached the NE/KS/MO border area by sunset and gradually departed across IA into WI through the night. The associated strong surface low pressure system followed a very similar track. Around the time snow broke out in South Central Nebraska, the low was centered over south central KS with a central pressure around 1000 millibars. Slight intensification commenced through the afternoon and evening as it headed northeast, registering around 996 millibars over southeast IA by 9 p.m. From a forecast perspective this was a well-anticipated event, with a Winter Storm Watch first issued for all of South Central Nebraska on the afternoon of the 21st, around 44-46 hours before the onset of heavy snow and blizzard conditions.

The first true blizzard of the 2018-19 winter season struck much of the northwest half of South Central Nebraska on this Thursday, causing not only many of the usual winter storm disruptions, but also snarling post-Christmas travel. Among various other impacts, Interstate 80 was initially closed from Lexington westward to North Platte, but with this closure eventually creeping as far east as Grand Island to accommodate traffic back-up. There was a fairly sharp divide in snow totals and storm impacts across the area, as locations generally northwest of an Alma-Kearney-Fullerton line received the highest amounts of 4-9, and in turn, experienced the most severe blizzard conditions. Amounts dropped off steadily to the southeast of that line, with places such as Osceola, Grand Island, Hastings and Red Cloud only seeing 1-2. Even farther southeast, counties such as Thayer/Fillmore/Nuckolls barely received a dusting. Per NWS cooperative observers, some of the highest official totals featured: 8.5 in Greeley, 8 in Edison, 7.9 in Loup City, 7.2 six miles southeast of Lexington and 7 in Arcadia, Cambridge and Wilsonville. In the Tri Cities, Kearney led the way with 3.8, while Grand Island and Hastings only measured 1.9. Winds were certainly a major factor, as much of the 27th featured sustained north-northwest speeds of 25-35 MPH and frequent gusts of 40-50 MPH, resulting in considerable blowing/drifting snow and reducing visibilities to around 1/4 mile for several hours in the Blizzard Warning area. ||Breaking down event timing, and initially backing up a bit, this storm started off very similar to the one four weeks prior, and with something fairly unusual for this time of year: soaking winter rain! In fact, Wednesday the 26th featured widespread rainfall of 1-2, including daily records in Grand Island (1.42) and Hastings (1.41). As colder air invaded western counties late that night, rain quickly changed to snow, with blizzard conditions already in full force by sunrise on the 27th in places such as Kearney, Lexington and Ord. Even before snow impacts kicked into high gear, the initially rain-wettened roads became slick due to a flash freeze in the falling temperatures. For the hardest-hit northern/western counties, the bulk of snow occurred during the early-mid morning, while areas farther south/east nearer the Highway 281 corridor (including Grand Island/Hastings) observed the majority of snow and occasional white-out conditions during the late-morning through mid-afternoon. Although blowing/drifting snow persisted in many areas well into the night, South Central Nebraska saw a pronounced break from falling snow through the late afternoon-evening, before one last batch of light snow (accumulation largely under one-half inch) flared up on the morning of the 28th. In the mid-upper levels, the primary player was a powerful, large scale trough, with its center tracking from NM on the 26th, to western KS by daybreak on the 27th, then northward across eastern NE into MN during the afternoon and evening. The associated strong surface low pressure system started the morning of the 27th over central Kansas (pressure around 996 millibars), before steadily marching to around Kansas City by mid-day and the IA/MN border by evening. On a climate-related side note, this event put an exclamation point on an incredibly wet December, as most of South Central Nebraska received between 2.50-4.50 of precipitation for the month, or generally 300-600% of normal! For most official stations, it was a Top-3 wettest December on record, and was the outright-wettest at places such as Osceola.

A blizzard occurred south and east of Hastings on this Saturday night and Sunday, and near-blizzard conditions occurred, at times, in many other locations. Saturday afternoon, a narrow band of snow developed, in the shape of an arc, from Omaha through the Sandhills and then southwest to Denver. This band formed in the deformation zone of developing low pressure. During the evening, this band expanded and moved southeast, enveloping all of south central Nebraska. At 2 AM CST Sunday, the northern terminus of the snow shield began moving into south central Nebraska. By 7 AM CST, the snow had ended over most of the area, except to the south and east of Hastings. By noon, the snow had exited to the east, bringing an end to the snow there as well. Windy conditions maintained blowing snow for 3 to 5 hours after the snow ended. Widespread, frequent wind gusts between 35 and 50 mph were common, which severely reduced the visibility in falling and blowing snow, especially south and east of Hastings. Near zero visibility was reported at Clay Center, Geneva, Hebron, and Nelson. A couple locations recorded wind gusts above 50 mph, including 55 mph at Hastings, and 62 mph at Nelson. The strength of the winds resulted in scattered power outages in Phelps, Hall, Hamilton, and Merrick counties. State troopers and other first responders were busy responding to slide-offs and minor accidents due to slippery roads. Motorists were urged to avoid traveling, and many spent the night in hotels. One hotel mentioned that travelers were checking-in all night, and others that intended to travel to the region had cancelled their reservations. Despite the nasty conditions, the Grand Island and Kearney airports remained open. However, numerous churches cancelled services. A few schools in Webster, Nuckolls, and Thayer counties even delayed their start time Monday morning. Measuring the snowfall was extremely difficult due to the wind. Most locations estimated 1 to 3 inches of snow fell. The exception was southeast of Hastings where Shickley estimated 3.5 inches, Clay Center estimated 4, and Hubbell estimated 6.||During the daytime hours Saturday, an Arctic cold front advanced south across Nebraska. A separate low pressure system moved through Wyoming and Colorado into southwest Kansas. This low and its associated fronts moved east along the Kansas-Oklahoma border Saturday night while the Arctic front continued moving south in its wake. The low moved into Missouri Sunday while high pressure over the Canadian Prairies begin building into Nebraska. In the upper-levels, amplification was occurring with a building ridge along the West Coast. This resulted in a shortwave trough deepening and becoming a closed low over Nebraska and Kansas.

A mesoscale convective system produced pockets of high winds and wind damage just after midnight on this Saturday morning. During the evening hours of Friday, scattered small clusters of multi-cell thunderstorms occurred over southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas. The clusters over southwest Nebraska were moving to the east and the clusters over northwest Kansas were moving northeast. Between 10 and 11 PM CST, as these two areas of thunderstorms, and their outflows, began to merge, thunderstorm coverage began to increase as new thunderstorms formed between McCook and Lexington. The increase in coverage resulted in storm mergers and the formation of a larger multicell mesoscale convective system. Between 11 PM and 12 AM CST, the orientation of the MCS temporarily became northeast to southwest as new cells continued to develop along the Platte River. The MCS then morphed more into a circular shape as it moved northeast along Highway 30 from Grand Island to Columbus. Initially, some low-end severe hail occurred in parts of Furnas and Phelps counties, but as the MCS matured, severe winds became dominant. Powerful downburst winds occurred in portions of Kearney, Adams, Hall, Hamilton, and Merrick counties. The highest measured wind gust was 69 mph at a home weather station near the town of Norman. Other measured gusts included 58 mph at the Grand Island airport and 60 mph at the Hastings airport. Widespread wind gusts between 50 and 57 mph occurred surrounding these areas and even far away from where the thunderstorms actually occurred. Winds were measured at 50 mph as far south as Red Cloud. Large tree limbs were snapped off in some spots around Grand Island and in Central City. Near the Platte River, just south of Central City, large tree limbs fell on a house and landed on top of vehicles.||These storms formed along and ahead of a Canadian cold front. The flow aloft was west-southwest from California to Maine and low in amplitude. There was no strong forcing aloft affecting the Central Plains. Before the thunderstorms moved in, temperatures were in the middle 70s with dewpoints in the lower 70s. Mid-level lapse rates were very steep, near 8.5 C/km. This resulted in very high instability with MUCAPE of 3000-4000 J/kg. Deep layer shear was around 30 kt.||This thunderstorm event was the first of several episodes of heavy rain which led to a very wet start of September for portions of south central Nebraska. Later in the evening on this Saturday, waves of thunderstorms formed over north central Kansas and repeatedly moved northeast into south central Nebraska with the greatest persistence south and east of Hastings. These waves of heavy rain continued through the night. There was a break from heavy rain during the day Sunday, but the next episode of heavy rain moved in Sunday evening. By daybreak on Monday, September 3rd, rainfall amounts totaled 3 to 5 inches across portions of northern Franklin, southern Adams, and southern Clay counties, as well as most of Fillmore, Webster, Nuckolls, and Thayer counties. This resulted in localized flash flooding with low spots in some county roads being washed out and Highway 4 being closed between Carleton and Davenport. As water drained into the headwaters of the Little Blue River, the river rapidly rose with minor flooding occurring. At Deweese, the river gauge peaked at 10.86 ft during the day Monday. Flood Stage is 10.0 ft.

The very early morning hours on this Saturday featured a number of severe-criteria wind gusts across primarily the northeast half of South Central Nebraska, thanks to a squall line/linear mesoscale convective system (MCS) racing through from northwest-to-southeast. The strongest-known measured wind was 74 MPH at Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island, shortly before 2 a.m. CDT. Other notable measured wind gusts included: 64 MPH at Ord airport, 62 MPH at both Hastings and York airports, and 59 MPH at Kearney airport. Ground-truth damage reports were fairly limited, but a cooperative observer near Shelby reported 7 diameter tree limbs down, and several overturned irrigation pivots in the area. In addition, a power line was downed by a fallen tree in Shelton, and power was also knocked out for a time in Red Cloud. This was almost purely a wind event, with storms producing little-to-no-hail, and the vast majority of severe gusts concentrating east-northeast of a line from western Buffalo County to Webster County. ||Timing-wise, the leading edge of the squall line entered the far northern local area (Valley County) shortly after midnight CDT, with outflow winds surging several miles out ahead of the trailing precipitation core. Severe winds reached the Highway 30 corridor around 2 a.m. CDT, and a line from roughly Hastings-York by around 2:30 a.m. CDT. The last evidence of severe weather within the local area consisted of 60 MPH winds at a mesonet station near Nelson at 319 a.m. CDT. Well before reaching South Central Nebraska, the initial severe convection that eventually morphed into this fast-moving squall line developed over south central South Dakota during the late afternoon/early evening of the 8th. In the mid-upper levels, this was a fairly classic setup for nocturnal severe weather. While forcing was not overly-strong, a low-amplitude disturbance tracked across mainly northern NE/southern SD through the night, embedded within a broad, quasi-zonal flow regime. Once the afternoon/early evening storms over southern SD grew upscale into an organized MCS, southeastward propagation into the local area was fostered by a southerly low level jet (evident at 850 millibars) strengthening to 30-40 knots. Around the time convection surged into northern local counties, mesoscale parameters featured around 1000-2000 J/kg most-unstable CAPE, and moderate deep-layer (0-6 km) shear of 30-40 knots.

Between the evening hours of Friday the 13th and the early morning of Sunday the 15th, a powerful, late-season winter storm took aim on South Central Nebraska, featuring an impactful mix of intense north winds, blizzard conditions (especially in northern/western counties), fairly significant icing (especially in northern counties) and record-cold temperatures. To be sure, this was a complex storm precipitation-wise, as snow totals fell short of forecasted expectations across much of the area. Nonetheless, the combination of strong winds, slick roads and pockets of drastically-reduced visibility made travel treacherous in many counties. In addition, power outages were fairly widespread, especially north and west of the Tri Cities, where communities such as Arcadia went over 24 hours without power (closer to 48 hours in rural areas). As just a sampling of various known impacts: 1) Interstate 80 was closed from Grand Island westward to Wyoming through much of the 14th, and did not completely re-open until the morning of the 15th...2) In the Howard/Greeley Rural Public Power District, a 40-year veteran employee stated this storm damaged more power poles than any in his career...3) The Region 26 EMA communications tower north of Ord toppled during the early morning hours of the 14th due to heavy ice accrual and intense north winds.||As for official snow amounts from NWS observers, the majority of South Central Nebraska received no more than 2, especially from the Tri Cities and south/east from there, including only 1.4 at Grand Island and 1.2 at Hastings. However, most locations generally west of a line from Greeley-Minden saw more of a snow/blizzard impact, with higher totals mainly in the 3-5 range. Of all local counties, Valley, Sherman and Buffalo seemed to receive the most snow, including totals of 5.5 in Ord, 4.7 in Kearney and 4.0 at Arcadia. Mainly preceding the snow, much of the area also had at least a few tenths of an inch of accretion (likely in excess of one-half inch in northwestern counties), due to a combination of flash freeze from rapidly falling temperatures and also at least a few hours of steady freezing drizzle/freezing rain. Above all else though, the key element that really defined this storm was intense north winds, with most places enduring at least 12-18 hours of sustained speeds generally 30-40 MPH and frequent gusts at least 50-60 MPH. Most of the peak gusts occurred during the pre-dawn hours of the 14th, including the following at primary airport sites: 64 MPH at Ord, 63 MPH at Hastings, 59 MPH at Grand Island and 58 MPH at Kearney. Also of note were the record-cold temperatures that accompanied this system. High temperatures on both the 14th and 15th only topped out between the upper 20s and mid 30s in most of South Central Nebraska, or roughly 30 degrees below normal for mid-April. Grand Island and Hastings established new record-cold maximum temperatures on both days (30-31 degrees), which also marked the latest-on-record spring occurrence of sub-freezing max temperatures!||Finishing up with a closer look at storm timing and meteorological background: Things starting getting underway on the afternoon and evening of the 13th, as pockets of mainly non-freezing rain/drizzle developed in advance of a powerful, closed mid-level low migrating along western sections of the Nebraska-Kansas border. By later evening and into the morning of the 14th, temperatures gradually fell below freezing from northwest-to-southeast, transitioning rain/drizzle over to freezing rain/freezing drizzle in many areas, while the primary snow band set up in north-south fashion through the Ord-Kearney-Holdrege areas. Also during the night, north winds began roaring in response to an intense surface pressure gradient on the backside of a roughly 1000 millibar low centered in far southeast Nebraska (the pressure difference across the entire state at this time was at least 25 millibars!) During the daylight hours on the 14th, several loosely organized snow bands continued rotating north-to-south across the area on the backside of the parent upper low pressure system, which reached the KS/NE/IA/MO border area by sunset. Finally, that evening into the early morning of the 15th, the last few bands of light snow/flurries pushed out of the region and winds continued to diminish, with gusts largely under 30 MPH by this time.

Heavy snow and blizzard conditions affected south central Nebraska on this Monday, with the worst conditions north of Interstate 80. On Sunday, a band of snow developed from northwest Kansas and extended northeast into the Nebraska Sandhills. This band formed in the deformation zone on the west side of the upper-level low and it remained stationary. The eastward fringe of this band affected areas from Cambridge to Lexington to Ord from 3 pm until 10 pm CST. Most of south central Nebraska was in the dry slot Sunday into Sunday evening. Multiple narrow bands of rain began forming over eastern Kansas, southeast Nebraska, and Iowa, east of the low Sunday evening. These bands rotated cyclonically, expanded and eventually merged with the larger snow band to the west which finally began moving east after midnight. By daybreak Monday, one large snow band extended from south central Nebraska into southern Minnesota. Over central Nebraska, the snow was heaviest and most persistent along and north of Highway 92, from 3 am to 9 am CST. At least 10 inches of snow fell over most of that area. The highest amounts were 14 inches at Belgrade and St. Paul. Greeley measured 12 inches, with 11 inches at Genoa, Osceola, and Shelby, and 10 inches at Ord. Other amounts of note include 7 inches at Grand Island and Ravenna. The southern tail of this band swept across the rest of south central Nebraska, but its narrow character resulted in much lower snow accumulations. One to 5 inches of snow fell from near Interstate 80 to the Kansas state line, with the lowest amounts near the state line. ||Strong winds developed with widespread gusts of 45 to 58 mph east of Highway 183. The highest wind gusts were 58 mph at Hastings and 57 mph at Cairo. This resulted in blizzard or near-blizzard conditions in many areas, but especially along and north of Interstate 80, with near white-out conditions reported. Conditions were so bad that the Nebraska Department of Transportation pulled their plows off the roads in Buffalo and Hall counties for about 2 hours. Numerous roads and highways were closed or reported as impassible, including portions of Highways 11, 58, and 92. Northbound Highway 281 was closed in Grand Island just north of Stolley Park Rd because two semi trucks could not make it over the overpass. Nebraska State Patrol responded to numerous vehicle accidents and vehicles that became stuck. Dozens of vehicles remained stranded as conditions were too dangerous for tow truck operators. The Polk county sheriff reported a number of cars slid into ditches on Highway 81. Portions of Interstate 80 in York county were closed for a couple hours due to multiple accidents. Power lines were reported down in Phelps county, with isolated power outages also reported in and near Lexington and from Franklin county northeast to Hamilton and Merrick counties. Numerous schools, government offices, and businesses were closed Monday, as well as the regional airports in Grand Island and Kearney. The University of Nebraska at Kearney, Hastings College, and all Central Community Colleges at Lexington, Ord, Kearney, Hastings, and Grand Island were also closed. Snow emergencies were declared in Aurora, Cozad, Gibbon, Gothenburg, Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings, Holdrege, Minden, and St. Paul. Since most people stayed off the roads, crews were able to plow roads, and life was back to normal by Tuesday.||The snow storm was associated with low pressure that moved east across Kansas and deepened near Kansas City during the morning hours. This low then occluded over Iowa. This system formed as an upper-level trough over the western U.S. moved east and intensified over Colorado.

The pre-dawn hours of this Sunday featured a surprisingly-potent, southward-surging complex of severe thunderstorms that provoked considerable wind damage primarily within Sherman, Buffalo, Howard and Hall counties, and likely isolated wind damage in several nearby counties as well. Some of the worst impacts occurred in and near Ravenna, where estimated gusts to around 85 MPH downed numerous trees, some as large as 4-6 feet in diameter. Portions of the community were without power for several hours, and a few homes and vehicles also sustained damage. In Kearney, while damage was not widespread, three large trees crashed down on a trailer home causing substantial roof damage. Other communities that suffered wind damage (mainly to trees) included: Loup City, Pleasanton, Cairo, Boelus and Grand Island (although impacts were quite minimal on the grounds of the ongoing Nebraska State Fair). Once storms pushed south of the Interstate 80 corridor, most peak gusts checked in around or below 50 MPH, although a mesonet station near Nelson clocked a 60 MPH gust shortly before the strongest part of the complex departed southward into Kansas. As for rainfall, the majority of South Central Nebraska received at least 0.50-1.00, but localized pockets of mainly Valley, Sherman and Howard counties tallied 2+. ||Breaking down event timing and evolution, the late evening featured a smattering of fairly weak storms here and there. However, the main event did not get even get underway until 2-3 a.m. CDT, as the beginning stages of a developing squall line took shape in far northern portions of South Central Nebraska, evolving from earlier activity that initiated in northern Nebraska. Over the next few hours, this linear complex surged south, wreaking the aforementioned wind damage and eventually assuming the form of a mature bow echo before departing into north central Kansas mainly between 5:30-6:30 a.m. CDT. ||Although the severity of this late-night severe event was not well-anticipated, a chance of thunderstorms was in the forecast as the mid-upper levels featured a fairly compact shortwave trough diving out of SD into Nebraska in a north-northwest flow regime. Closer to the surface at 850 millibars, modest south-southwesterly flow resulted in decent low-level moisture convergence into central Nebraska, and at the surface, a weak cold front sagged southward across the state as the night wore on (eventually augmented by storm outflow). Once storms established a surging cold pool, the moisture-rich surface environment proved favorable to fostering severe wind gusts, with dewpoints averaging in the mid-60s to around 70 F. Around the time the damaging wind event ramped up, mesoscale analysis indicated most-unstable CAPE up to around 2000 j/kg and effective deep-layer wind shear around 40 knots.

Thunderstorms produced damaging winds and some low-end severe hail over several counties in south central Nebraska on this Tuesday evening and night. Scattered single cell thunderstorms began developing around 3 PM CST from central Kansas northeast into southern Nebraska. The formation of numerous cells quickly resulted in a transition to a multicell convective mode by 4 PM CST. This nearly continuous line of storms lifted north, crossing much of south central Nebraska between 5 and 8 PM CST. As this occurred, another cluster of multicells over north central Kansas merged and moved northeast, eventually taking on the shape of a bow echo. This line of storms affected areas from Nelson and Hebron up to York between 630 and 730 PM CST. More storms over southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas eventually consolidated and crossed south central Nebraska as a small scale bow echo between 10 PM and 130 AM CST. The initial line lifting north produced a fairly large area of severe winds from the state line north to Holdrege and Grand Island. A grain bin was removed from its foundation and deposited on Highway 74 near the town of Roseland, in Adams County. A tractor-trailer was blown over on Interstate 80 as well, just south of Grand Island. The highest gust measured was 67 mph at the Holdrege airport. A brief EF-0 landspout tornado was photographed near the town of Exeter. The eastern portion of this line produced the most hail, with a few reports of 1 inch hail over Fillmore, Nuckolls, and Thayer Counties. The bow echo taking shape from Nelson to York snapped a few power poles in eastern Thayer County. The last line of storms to cross the area produced mostly sub-severe winds of 50 to 55 mph. However, severe winds did occur in a couple locations. The highest measured gust was 64 mph in the town of Norman, in eastern Kearney County. A brief EF-1 tornado also occurred in Clay County, just north of the town of Edgar. It was on the ground for approximately 2 miles, damaging outbuildings, trees, and overturning irrigation pivots. This tornado occurred just after midnight CST. Repeated thunderstorm activity resulted in 1 to 2 inches of rain over much of south central Nebraska. There were even a couple reports in excess of 3 inches. Ditches were full of water, and even some minor flooding of low-lying areas occurred near Highway 136 just west of the town of Inavale, and also near the intersections of Highways 81 and 92 west of Osceola.||Low pressure was over South Dakota, and its trailing weak cold front moved into south central Nebraska during the day. It became stationary as low pressure formed over southeast Colorado and deepened to near 990 mb. In the upper-levels, a longwave trough was over the Western U.S. with a ridge over the East. A strong shortwave trough lifted out of the Desert Southwest into the Southern Plains, while a closed low dropped into the Pacific Northwest. In the preconvective environment, an elevated mixed layer had overspread a moist boundary layer. Mid-level lapse rates were between 8 and 9 C/km. MUCAPE was between 3000 and 4500 J/kg. With strong dynamic forcing, deep layer shear was very strong, between 40 and 60 kt.

A widespread ice storm occurred on this Sunday and Monday. This was the most significant ice storm, for south central Nebraska, since December 2006. The amounts and impacts were not as significant as that event, but this event covered a much larger area. Ice amounts within the Ice Storm Warning area were generally 0.25-0.5, with locally higher amounts. Amounts within the Winter Storm Warning were generally 0.10-0.25. If any higher amounts occurred, they were the exception. It all began just before sunrise Sunday with scattered showers of light freezing rain and sleet. That was followed by two swaths of light freezing rain that lifted from south to north, through the day and evening, across all of south central Nebraska. Each band was about 50 miles wide. The main, solid band of light to moderate freezing rain, associated with the deformation zone, reached the state line with Kansas by 4 AM CST Monday. This east-west oriented band lifted north, affecting nearly all of south central Nebraska through midday. As the morning progressed, the band contracted and pivoted, becoming oriented southwest-northeast. It diminished significantly and moved northeast during the afternoon, with the freezing rain ending.||Portions of Interstate 80 were closed due to semi-truck accidents during the morning hours of the Sunday. There were probably many more accidents that were not reported. Numerous relatively short-lived power outages occurred, caused by both ice and falling tree limbs. Some tree limbs were snapped off in spots, with some as large as 8-10 in diameter. The regional airports in Grand Island and Kearney were both closed. Melted precipitation amounts were significant, with most of the region receiving at least 0.50, with an embedded area of 0.75 to more than 1.25. The highest amount was 1.30 at Clay Center. Grand Island and Hastings both set daily precipitation records for Monday.||At the surface, high pressure was over the Midwest Sunday, and it gradually drifted into New England Monday. The polar front extended from Texas, across the Gulf Coast States into the Carolina's Sunday, and it was quasi-stationary. A weak low pressure system exited New Mexico and moved into Texas, interacting with the pre-existing polar front. This low lifted north across Oklahoma and into Kansas Sunday night where it remained for most of the day Monday. In the upper-levels, split flow was over North America, with the main band of Westerlies along and just north of the Canadian border. Confluent flow was over the Northern Plains and Midwest. A small low tracked across northern Mexico and then lifted northeast into Oklahoma before opening up in the confluent flow.

The weather on Christmas 2016 was so significant and unusual that it's probably a safe bet to categorize it as once in a lifetime Christmas weather for this 24-county South Central Nebraska area. While past Christmases (such as 2009) are remembered for more traditional significant winter weather such as heavy snow/blizzards, this one will go down in the record books for spring-like severe thunderstorms with damaging winds and the first three December tornadoes in Nebraska since 1975, followed by an intense damaging wind event during the evening hours featuring sustained values of 30-50 MPH and peak gusts generally 55-75 MPH. All things considered, the evening high winds were actually more impactful to the area as a whole than the daytime thunderstorms, given that fierce speeds persisted as long as two to three hours in most locations. These winds resulted in widespread, mainly minor damage to trees, power lines (promoting several power outages) and some structures, and also flipped over numerous irrigation pivots. In reality, the official convective and non-convective storm/damage reports documented here only capture a portion of all significant weather/damages observed within South Central Nebraska. ||Focusing more detail on the thunderstorms and tornadoes, the culprit was a narrow, strongly forced squall line that steadily advanced across the entire local area from west-southwest to east-northeast. Timing-wise, this was a fairly early show as convection first entered far southwestern local counties such as Furnas/Gosper between 10:30-11:30 AM, swept through central areas including the Tri Cities between 12 PM and 1:30 PM and eventually exited far northeastern counties such as Polk/Nance between 2-3 PM. While most locations experienced sub-severe winds up to around 50 MPH, brief heavy rain and perhaps small hail with the passage of these storms, there were several transient small-scale bowing segments and circulations embedded within the line, resulting in pockets of damaging winds and three confirmed, short-track tornadoes. These tornadoes (two rated EF-0, one EF-1) all occurred between 11:45 AM-12:30 PM and lasted only a few minutes. The first tornado, near Funk, destroyed several large power poles. The second tornado produced minor damage at a farm southeast of Minden, and the third destroyed an outbuilding at Blue Sky Estates northwest of Gibbon. A few of the most significant damage reports not directly attributed to tornadic circulations included: construction trailers blown over and a barn destroyed on the west side of Kearney; and machine shed and tree damage southeast of Bruning. ||Even though the day had already featured highly-unusual and locally-damaging Christmas weather, for many places the worst was yet to come in the form of the widespread evening damaging wind event, which largely unfolded under clear skies due to strong subsidence on the backside of an intense low pressure system. At nearly any given affected location, there were at least a few peak gusts of 60-75 MPH from the west-southwest, along with two to perhaps three hours of sustained speeds 30-50 MPH. Timing-wise, high winds rapidly overspread most of South Central Nebraska from southwest-to-northeast, with severe-criteria gusts first measured in counties such as Furnas/Harlan shortly after 5 PM, central locations such as Grand Island/Hastings between 6-7 PM and far northern counties such as Valley by 8 PM. Finally, between 9:30 and 10:30 PM, winds eased below High Wind Warning criteria for the night. Based on dozens of reports from automated sensors, only the southeastern fringe of South Central Nebraska (generally southeast of a Red Cloud-Geneva line) was spared widespread damaging winds. Meanwhile, across the rest of the area, just a sampling of peak measured wind gusts included: 76 MPH at Aurora airport, 75 MPH at Grand Island airport and near Oxford, 73 MPH near Franklin, 72 MPH in Osceola and 71 MPH at the NWS office in Hastings. Needless to say, these evening winds resulted in fairly widespread, mainly minor damage to trees, power lines and some structures, and also flipped over numerous irrigation pivots. Forecast-wise, while gusty winds were anticipated to move in behind the departing low, the ferocity of this event exceeded expectations.||Closing with an examination of the meteorological setup, it certainly was more reminiscent of March or April in South Central Nebraska than late-December. In the mid-upper levels, a powerful, negatively-tilted vorticity maximum deepened over the course of the day as it emerged from the Central Rockies, reaching north central Nebraska by early evening. Just to the southeast of the mid-level low center, a formidable upper jet streak of 120+ knots migrated overhead. At the surface, it was a classic setup for low-topped, severe convection as a deep low pressure system intensified to around 986 millibars in far northeast CO by noon, allowing a warm front to surge northward across South Central Nebraska. Despite considerable cloud cover, temperatures rising into the 50s F and dewpoints climbing into the mid-40s to low-50s F allowed mixed-layer CAPE to reach a few hundred J/kg. Combined with strong deep-layer wind shear of generally 60-80 knots and exceptional low-level shear of 50-60 knots, even this relatively meager instability proved sufficient for damaging winds and brief tornadoes. By early evening, the intense surface low pressure center reached north central Nebraska, placing the local area behind an occluded Pacific cold front and within a zone of deep atmospheric subsidence. In tandem with other factors such as steadily-rising pressures and increased vertical mixing, this allowed very strong west-southwest winds within a few thousand feet of the surface to mix downward, driving the evening damaging wind event.

A squall line brought wind damage and strong to severe wind gusts to much of south central Nebraska during the very early morning hours on this Wednesday. Then, isolated storms developed in the afternoon and produced severe hail. During the evening hours Tuesday, a mature squall line developed over the Sandhills. It propagated southeast and into the region beginning around 11:30 p.m. CST. The squall line was at peak intensity as it entered Dawson, Howard, and Valley Counties. It rapidly weakened after 12:30 a.m. CST. However, the remnant outflow continued to produce strong to severe winds through 3 a.m. CST, well after the deep convection had dissipated. Widespread winds between 50 and 60 mph were measured, but peak wind gusts included 61 mph at Grand Island, 63 mph near Oxford, 64 mph at Lexington, and 76 mph at Edison. Tree damage was reported in several locations, with trees blown over and tree limbs snapped off. The last strong wind gust measured was 56 mph at York, at 3:03 a.m. CST. Isolated power outages occurred across the region.||Later in the afternoon, a small cluster of multicell thunderstorms developed over the Sandhills. A few isolated storms managed to develop along the southwest flank of its outflow boundary, though most of them were weak, short-lived, and sub-severe. A single-cell storm, which exhibited multi-cell characteristics at times, dominated the other cells over Custer County. Just after 7 p.m. CST, this storm moved into northwest Buffalo County and produced a few reports of dime to quarter size hail. By 8 p.m. CST, the storm began weakening and then rapidly dissipated over southwest Buffalo County.||The surface map was complex. The thunderstorms that initially spawned the squall line developed between two fronts. A stationary front extended west from the mid-Atlantic region, through the mid-Mississippi Valley into Oklahoma, then northwest into western Kansas and Nebraska. A weak cold front extended from Lake Superior to the northwest tip of Nebraska into Wyoming and Idaho. The afternoon storms formed behind this front which was surging southward. It was located along the Nebraska-Kansas state line by 6 p.m. CST. In the upper levels, the Westerlies were fairly zonal over the northern third of the U.S., with subtropical highs over the Southwest and off the Carolina Coast. A weak shortwave trough was embedded in the Westerlies over the Dakota's Tuesday evening. By Wednesday evening, it had progressed into Minnesota and Iowa, with some slight amplification and more of a cyclonic look between the two highs. Just prior to the arrival of the squall line, surface temperatures were in the upper 60s to lower 70s, with dewpoints in the middle 60s. Mid-level lapse rates were steep, between 7.5 and 7.9 degrees C/km, resulting in MLCAPE around 1000 J/kg. Effectively deep layer shear was less than 25 kts. The MCS was moving out of an area of more favorable shear, resulting in the shear within the cold pool becoming dominant, and the demise of the deep convection. With the isolated hail producer later that evening, temperatures behind the front were in the lower 80s, with dewpoints still in the middle to upper 60s. Mid-level lapse rates were moist adiabatic. Nevertheless, MLCAPE was between 1500 and 2000 J/kg. Effective deep layer shear was around 30 kts.

One of the most significant winter storms/blizzards on record slammed this 24-county South Central Nebraska area during the first two days of February, with the vast majority of impacts occurring on Tuesday the 2nd as a crippling combination of heavy snow and strong winds brought travel and commerce to a halt. Among numerous other road closures, Interstate 80 was shut down for roughly 24 hours between Lincoln and North Platte. In terms of snow totals alone, this ranked as the second-biggest storm on record for Grand Island (18.3 inches) and was the fourth-largest, two-day storm on record at Hastings (15.7). During the height of the storm during the pre-dawn and daytime hours of the 2nd, sustained winds across most of the area averaged 30-40 MPH with gusts commonly 40-50 MPH, initially out of the northeast but gradually shifting more north-northwest with time. Factoring in the widespread impacts of blizzard/whiteout conditions and drifting snow over such a large area, this was easily the worst winter storm to impact South Central Nebraska in over six years, since the Christmas Blizzard of 2009. Just in Hall County alone, snow removal and other public works related costs tallied over $438,000. Given that this storm primarily struck on Feb. 2nd, many will remember it as the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2016. ||According to dozens of NWS cooperative observers, the majority of the 24-county area accumulated snow totals between 10-16, with a few of the highest official amounts featuring 18.3 at Grand Island, 18.0 at Wilsonville and 16.5 at Holdrege. Only the extreme southeast corner of the local area was spared the worst conditions, as much of Fillmore and especially Thayer counties only saw 5-8 inches. Also in the Thayer County area, winds were not quite as intense through most of the event, with less in the way of true-blizzard conditions. In terms of liquid equivalent precipitation, this storm helped propel many locations to a top-10 wettest meteorological winter on record thanks to liquid totals ranging from 0.70-1.60 in most places, and as high as 1.81 in Grand Island. ||Breaking down the timing and meteorological background of this two-day event, the initial bands of generally light snow started sneaking into the area from the southwest during the pre-dawn and daytime hours of the 1st, driven mainly by broad mid-level lift well out ahead of the primary large-scale trough approaching from the Intermountain West. By sunset, several western counties such as Furnas, Gosper and Phelps had already picked up 2-4 of snow, but winds were still fairly light with sustained speeds generally around 15 MPH. By around midnight, additional bands of light to moderate snow had boosted totals as high as 7 in far southwestern locations such as Cambridge, but most of South Central Nebraska had 2 or less. During the pre-dawn hours of the 2nd, conditions went downhill fast as an organized, large band of moderate to heavy snow lifted across the area from south-to-north, driven by increasing synoptic-scale forcing to the north of a powerful, closed mid-level low churning into southwestern Kansas. At the same time, northeast winds ramped up considerably in response to surface low pressure deepening to around 994 millibars over central Kansas by daybreak. By 6-7 a.m., full-blown blizzard conditions were solidly in place across most of the local area, with 11.8 of snow reported at Cambridge, 10 at Holdrege and 6 at places such as Grand Island, Hastings and Osceola. During the day, blizzard conditions raged on across most of the area as the nearly vertically-stacked, powerhouse low pressure system tracked to the NE/KS/IA/MO border area by sunset. Central locations such as Grand Island ended up receiving some of the highest snow totals as they spent the most time under enhanced snow bands within the main deformation zone on the backside of the departing low. In contrast, far southeast counties (namely Thayer) saw reduced snow coverage/intensity as a mid-level dry slot nosed up from the south. By mid-evening, the vast majority of accumulating snow had ended as the surface and upper-level storm system departed into Iowa. However, travel remained treacherous thanks to northerly winds still gusting 35-45 MPH. Fortunately, winds eased considerably during the overnight hours, and by daybreak on the 3rd sustained speeds were down to 10-15 MPH in most areas. ||From a forecast perspective, this event was an overall victory. The initial Winter Storm Watch came out nearly three days in advance of the worst conditions and the first Blizzard and Winter Storm Warnings were issued over 36 hours before the main impacts began. In addition, although the details certainly evolved with time, this was one of those fairly rare instances when computer models correctly latched onto the likelihood for a high-impact winter storm more than a week in advance.

In what had already been a very active start to June across parts of South Central Nebraska, what transpired on the afternoon of Wednesday the 10th into the early morning of Thursday the 11th was the final, truly widespread severe weather/flooding event of the month before a noticeably quieter weather pattern settled in over the next few weeks. Focusing first on the severe weather aspect, the afternoon and evening featured several reports of large hail and damaging winds within various counties. Storm mode was primarily multicell, some of which started out as semi-discrete before eventually merging into larger clusters and lines. Most hail reports were in the nickel to half dollar size range, with 1.25 diameter stones reported near Elwood and Lexington. However, one storm that tracked north of Lexington around 6 p.m. CDT was a prolific hail-producer, as a storm chaser reported a short stretch of Highway 21 completely hail-covered with most stones averaging golf ball size but one as large as 3 in diameter. As for damaging winds, there were primarily three noteworthy storms. First off, a cluster of severe storms shifted eastward into the Valley/Sherman counties area between 5:30-6:30 p.m. CDT. In Arcadia, the NWS cooperative observer estimated 70 MPH gusts, with 10-12 diameter tree limbs down. A bit later, a storm became severe near the Franklin/Kearney County line around 7 p.m. CDT and rapidly tracked northeast during the next few hours. Along the way, estimated 70 MPH winds overturned seven empty freight cars of a 72-car train near Kenesaw in extreme western Adams County. This storm weakened before reaching Grand Island, with only 50-60 MPH gusts reported on the south side of town around 8:30 p.m. CDT. While the train-toppling storm was in progress, a separate severe storm to its northeast passed through Merrick and northern Hamilton counties, causing tree and power line damage in Central City and Hordville around 8 p.m. CDT. By 9 p.m. CDT, storms had largely settled below severe-limits, with just one additional 60 MPH wind report along the Franklin/Webster County line. Through the remainder of the night, scattered to numerous showers and non-severe storms persisted over much of South Central Nebraska, with most counties finally rain-free by sunrise. As for rainfall amounts, the majority of the 24-county area totaled 1-2. However, there were a few smaller pockets of at least 2-3, most notably within York, northern Hamilton and southwestern Polk counties, where NeRAIN observers reported 3.46 near Hordville and 3.24 near Benedict. Although a few dry days leading up to this event had allowed the York County area to start drying out in the wake of flooding rains that fell primarily on the 4th-5th, this event resulted in renewed short-term flooding issues. Most notably this involved the West Fork Big Blue River near McCool Junction, which again came out of its banks during the day on the 11th, only a few days after historic flooding occurred. Fortunately, flooding was not as severe this time around, and the river largely fell back into its banks by the end of the day on Friday the 12th (please refer to the June 4th p.m.-June 5th a.m. episode narrative for much more detail regarding multiple days of flooding along the West Fork Big Blue River). ||Most of the timing details of this severe weather event were already covered in the preceding paragraph, as all hail/strong wind reports occurred between 4:00-9:30 p.m. CDT. However, the first strong storms of the afternoon actually developed eastward into the Dawson/Gosper counties area as early as 2:30-4:00 p.m. CDT. Turning to the synoptic and mesoscale setup: the primary trigger aloft was a series of fairly subtle disturbances gradually overspreading the Central Plains, out ahead of a modest shortwave trough drifting southeast toward the region from the Northern Rockies. At the surface, a few different boundaries helped to focus convection, including a generally west-to-east oriented quasi-stationary front draped through central Nebraska and also a trough axis extending southwest from the local area to weak low pressure centered near the KS/CO border. With afternoon temperatures rising between 90-95 degrees, storms erupted in an environment featuring around 2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and 30-40 knots of 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear. During the night, widespread weak convection persisted within the exit region of a 30-40 knot low level jet.

During a month that had several rounds of severe weather in South Central Nebraska, what transpired on this Saturday evening into the very early morning of Sunday the 15th was likely one of the most significant severe weather events of the entire 2014 convective season, especially in terms of widespread wind damage that raked from west-to-east through most locations near and south of Interstate 80 during the later evening. Earlier in the event, more discrete convection resulted primarily in numerous reports of severe-criteria hail, some as large as tennis ball to grapefruit size, along with four confirmed, brief EF0 tornadoes that yielded no reports of damage. The first of these tornadoes occurred in northwestern Franklin County near Hildreth around 730 pm CDT. The other three tornadoes were associated with a supercell storm that drifted northeast out of Kansas along a path from Webster to Hamilton counties before being absorbed into a larger line of convection. The first of these tornadoes was sighted in far southwestern Webster County around 830 pm CDT while the final two brief touchdowns occurred after nightfall in southwestern Hamilton County between Trumbull and Giltner between 1000-1030 pm CDT. In terms of hail, the largest confirmed stone of 4.25 fell three miles southeast of Hastings around 930 pm CDT. Other notable hail reports included stones up to baseball size along the Nance-Merrick County line, in and near Gibbon, near Ayr and in Arapahoe. However, in terms of widespread damage, the aforementioned severe squall line that rolled across roughly the southern half of the 24-county area later in the evening ended up being the big story of this event. Based on known wind and damage reports (which likely only represented a fraction of the total, individual instances of storm damage across the area), this north-to-south oriented squall line produced a swath of 60-90 MPH gusts through essentially all areas between Interstate 80 and the Kansas border. In addition to several estimated severe wind speeds, a few of the most intense measured gusts included 82 MPH by a storm chaser near the Interstate 80 York exit, 79 MPH at Hastings airport, and 76 MPH at home weather stations near Davenport and Ohiowa. Needless to say, a significant amount of wind damage occurred with this squall line as it uprooted or mangled countless trees and also damaged several structures, including outbuildings, grain bins and power poles. To cite just a few examples of this damage as it progressed from west to east: at Harlan County Lake at least four small boats were rammed into the shore and a camping trailer was overturned onto a vehicle, in Guide Rock a garage was blown off its foundation and partially onto a roadway, and at the Nuckolls County fairgrounds in Nelson a tin roof was removed from a barn, the roof of the arena was damaged and a camper was flipped on its side. Due to the fairly progressive nature of most storms, rainfall totals across much of South Central Nebraska did not exceed 1-2 inches. However, a southwest-to-northeast corridor of 2-3 and locally higher rainfall centered roughly 15 miles either side of a line from Wilcox-Grand Island-Genoa, featuring NeRAIN observer totals of 4.13 three miles west-southwest of Genoa and 4.06 two miles of Doniphan.||Breaking down event timing, the initial round of at least semi-discrete convection, including a few supercells, flared up between 530-730 pm CDT within a fairly narrow southwest-to-northeast oriented corridor along a slow-moving but well-defined cold front. Most of this early convection concentrated several miles either side of a line from near Franklin and Red Cloud in the south, then north-northeast through the Hastings-Grand Island-Central City-Fullerton areas. Generally between 730-930 pm CDT, this initially narrow corridor of storms gradually expanded in coverage to both the west and east. Then, even as ongoing convection remained strong to severe, the leading edges of the incoming, intense squall line raced out of southwest Nebraska, entering southwestern portions of the local area between 930-1030 pm CDT. For the next few hours generally between 1030 pm to 1 am CDT, this fierce, bowing line raced across the remainder of roughly the southern half of South Central Nebraska, while the far northern end of the line gradually merged with the earlier convection that had largely lifted north of Interstate 80 by this time and had weakened somewhat. Finally, between 1-2 am CDT, the line of severe storms cleared the far eastern edges of the local area near the Highway 81 corridor, leaving behind only a trailing zone of stratiform rain that lingered into the pre-dawn hours. ||On the synoptic scale, this was a fairly classic June setup for significant severe, as a progressive mid level shortwave trough kicked out of the Rockies and into the Central Plains, rotating around the southeast periphery of a parent closed low anchored over the Montana/Saskatchewan border area. As this occurred, strengthening and increasingly-diffluent mid-upper southwesterly flow overspread the local area. At the surface, a slow-moving cold front edged eastward into South Central Nebraska during the day, embedded within an elongated 992-996 millibar low pressure center stretched from western Kansas into eastern Nebraska by early evening. During the late-afternoon to mid-evening time frame, temperatures gradually decreased from highs in the upper-80s to lower-90s F while dewpoints generally held in the mid-60s F. Mesoscale severe weather parameters during the early-mid evening featured 2000-3000 J/kg mixed layer CAPE in the presence of 40-60 knots of 0-6 kilometer deep layer vertical wind shear. As the evening wore on, low level shear intensified as the nose of a 50-60 knot low level jet focused into the area. This severe weather outbreak was well-anticipated a few days in advance at both the local WFO level as well as by the Storm Prediction Center, which already placed most of South Central Nebraska in a Moderate Risk on the Day 2 outlooks 24-48 hours in advance and maintained/expanded the Moderate Risk area into the Day 1 period.

Isolated to scattered severe thunderstorms raked across portions of South Central Nebraska on this Sunday afternoon, resulting in not only several reports of large hail and damaging winds, but also Nebraska's first three tornadoes of 2014. Fortunately, these tornadoes were of the weak and brief variety (rated EF-0) and resulted in no reports of damage. The first tornado touched down shortly before 230 PM CDT in far northern Franklin County near Upland. The other two tornadoes occurred a few hours later between 430-530 PM, associated with the strongest, most organized supercell storm of the day as it tracked north through the far eastern counties of the local area. One of these tornadoes touched down north of Bradshaw in York County and the other in west-central Polk County several miles west-northwest of Osceola. As for hail reports, the majority of them originated from western Thayer and Fillmore and northern Adams counties, including some stones up to golf ball size. There were only a few reports of marginally severe winds, highlighted by a measured 62 MPH gust near Wood River. ||All strong to severe thunderstorms within the 24-county area occurred between 12-6 PM CDT in association with a seasonably classic and powerful, vertically-stacked low pressure system migrating northeastward into South Central Nebraska. All severe storms also concentrated east and northeast of a Lexington-Franklin line, as the far southwestern counties were spared due to the passage of a well-defined, northward-drifting surface dryline and occluding cold front. There were essentially two primary areas and modes of severe storm development. The first, which accounted for most of the day's thunderstorm activity, consisted of a broken arc of storms lifting north across mainly central and west-central portions of the area. Several individual cells within this arc drifted northwestward in sync with the counter-clockwise circulation of the parent low. The initial development got going over Dawson County between 12-1 PM CDT, but these storms yielded no reports of severe weather before departing the local area into Custer and Lincoln counties. Following a brief lull, the second and more dominant arc of convection flared up generally along an axis running from eastern Dawson to Webster counties between 130 PM and 3 PM CDT, during which time the first tornado occurred near Upland. Eventually, the eastern-most cells in the arc became the most intense as they lifted north-northwest, resulting in several hail reports along a path through counties including Adams, Hall and Sherman between 330 PM and 5 PM CDT before weakening and eventually departing the local area to the north. Meanwhile, the second primary area/mode of severe weather developed farther east, and revolved around an isolated supercell that developed over southwestern Thayer County around 230 PM CDT and then drifted almost due north for the next several hours, finally departing the local area out of far eastern Nance and Merrick counties around 6 PM CDT. This lone supercell produced both the York and Polk County tornadoes, along with several hail reports. Just to the east of this main supercell of the day, another briefly-severe storm affected far eastern York County around 5 PM CDT. All strong-severe convection vacated the entire 24-county area by around 6 PM CDT, leaving behind only lingering stratiform rain in western counties under the core of the mid level low.||On the synoptic scale, the day began with a deep, vertically stacked closed low centered over central portions of the Kansas-Colorado border area as its 984 millibar surface low started to occlude. By early afternoon, severe storm development in South Central Nebraska focused within a corridor of steep low level lapse rates under the mid-level dry slot, with the southwestern extent of storm development defined by the leading edge of the northward-drifting occluded front/dryline. By late afternoon, the deep low had migrated to near McCook, allowing the surface front to push northward through all of South Central and ending the severe threat. Ahead of this occluded front/sharp dryline, surface-based CAPE climbed to around 1000 J/kg in an environment featuring surface dewpoints in the mid-upper 50s F. Behind the boundary, dewpoints quickly crashed into the 30s F.

On this Saturday evening and early Sunday morning, strong to severe thunderstorms tracked into western portions of South Central Nebraska for the second consecutive night. Also for the second night in a row, the Ord airport measured a severe wind gust, this time topping out at 67 MPH shortly before 1230 am CDT as a powerful outflow boundary surged nearly 15 miles out ahead of a broken line of storms approaching from the west. The most notable storm of the night, however, was an outflow-dominant supercell that developed on the more-organized south end of the line as it pushed in from southwest Nebraska. The brunt of this storm blasted Gosper County as it entered the local area between 1230-130 am CDT, producing a swath of crop damage mainly in southern portions of the county thanks to the combination of quarter to golf ball size hail, and estimated wind gusts of 60-80 MPH. Although the worst part of the storm quickly weakened as it passed east-northeast into Phelps and Dawson counties, it still yielded quarter size hail and a downed power line east-southeast of Smithfield, and a measured 59 MPH gust roughly halfway between Lexington and Eddyville. By 2 am CDT, all storms had weakened below severe limits, but multiple clusters of sometimes-strong storms persisted through the night across several counties mainly along and north of Highway 6, at times producing hail up to nickel size and wind gusts up to around 50 MPH. The back edge of all thunderstorm activity finally exited the far eastern counties of South Central Nebraska along Highway 81 around 630 am CDT on the 23rd. ||Backing up to the very beginning of this event, an isolated strong storm rapidly sprung up as early as 5-6 pm CDT on the 22nd in western Dawson County, but only produced nickel size hail in the Gothenburg area before weakening and fading away. Thereafter, South Central Nebraska experienced a lull of several hours before the aforementioned broken line of severe storms initially raced into the area from the west between 11pm-midnight CDT. In general, the brunt of thunderstorm activity on this night focused near a west-southwest to east-northeast oriented quasi-stationary front/outflow boundary stretched across the heart of Nebraska. In the mid-upper levels, forcing was tied to low-amplitude disturbances passing through modestly strong southwesterly flow, along the periphery of a broad trough anchored by a vigorous Northern Rockies vorticity max. In addition to convergence along the aforementioned surface front, the nocturnal maintenance of storms was augmented warm air advection evident at 850 millibars along a 40-50 knot low level jet. Mesoscale severe weather parameters around midnight CDT in South Central Nebraska featured most-unstable CAPE around 1500 J/kg in the presence of seasonably strong 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear of 40+ knots.

A cluster of weak thunderstorms developed over northeastern Colorado during the previous evening. It tracked eastward across the southern third of Nebraska, arriving in the early morning hours of Tuesday. The thunderstorms were high-based (cloud bases around 11,000 feet) atop a very hot, dry air mass. This created a favorable environment for heat bursts due to substantial sub-cloud evaporation and accelerating, mostly dry downdrafts. Several wind gusts were measured between 54 and 63 mph, across eastern Buffalo, central Hall and along the southern border of Hamilton and York counties. These winds resulted in the collapse of a new restaurant under construction along Highway 281 in Grand Island. The exterior 2 by 6 inch wood walls were framed, standing and temporarily braced, but the bracing was not enough to avoid succumbing to the winds. The Grand Island Independent also reported tree damage and power outages in the area. ||Temperatures during these heat bursts increased well into the 90s and humidity levels dropped into the teens. The hottest surge in temperature occurred at a mesonet station 2 miles south of Henderson in extreme southwestern York County. Its temperature peaked at 102 degrees, with a minimum dewpoint of 46 degrees. This resulted in a relative humidity of 15%.

On this Friday, scattered thunderstorms formed over southwestern Nebraska during peak heating, from Ogallala down to Imperial. Some of these storms moved northeast, and as they did so, new thunderstorms initiated ahead of them over South Central Nebraska between 10 and 10:30 pm CDT. The two strongest storms were short line segments of multicells. The first developed and affected Sherman and Howard counties. The second was associated with the storms moving in from the west, and affected Dawson county. Severe weather was not widespread. A single report of one inch hail was received in Gothenburg. Elsewhere, trees and power lines were knocked down in Loup City in Sherman county. One inch hail was also reported in the nearby town of Ashton.||The rainfall amounts were far more impressive than the severe weather. After 11:30 pm CDT, additional thunderstorms formed, connecting the two individual storm clusters. This created a continuous line of storms oriented from west-to-east which slowly sank southeastward. Cell training occurred and resulted in widespread rainfall amounts of 2 to 3 inches from Sherman, Howard and Merrick counties across York, Adams, Clay and Thayer counties. The highest totals exceeded 4 inches, in and near Loup City in Sherman county. The synoptic and mesoscale setups were ideal for heavy, excessive rainfall. Surface high pressure was departing the region, with a stationary front extending from the Nebraska Panhandle southeast to Louisiana. An upper-level ridge was over the Plains, just east of South Central Nebraska. A 35 knot low-level jet provided a favorable environment for thunderstorms to develop, transporting increasingly warm, moist air over the front and into South Central Nebraska. Mean layer CAPE averaged around 2,000 J/kg. Precipitable water was around 1.2 inches, which was almost 2 standard deviations above normal for late May.

In the midst of one of the top-10 coldest months of April on record for much of South Central Nebraska, a late-season winter storm brought a widespread 1-4 inches of snow to most counties during a roughly 15-hour period between the late evening of Wednesday the 17th and the early-mid afternoon of Thursday the 18th. Areas west of Highway 281, which saw the greatest coverage of localized 3+ inch amounts, observed most accumulating snow during the overnight hours. Meanwhile, for most counties along and east of Highway 281, snow began during the night but peaked in intensity after sunrise before ending or diminishing to flurries during the afternoon. Adding to the mid-April misery were brisk north-northwest winds sustained 20-30 MPH and gusting 35-40 MPH, resulting in occasional visibility restrictions to one-half mile or less and wind chill temperatures between 10-20 degrees. The majority of the 24-county area measured at least 1-2 of snow from this event, except for far southeast counties such as Nuckolls and Thayer that averaged less than 1. According to NWS cooperative observers and NeRAIN observers, 3+ inch amounts primarily focused within the far western counties of Furnas, Dawson and Gosper, including 4 at Wilsonville, 3.5 eight miles south of Elwood and six miles south-southeast of Lexington, and 3 at Beaver City and three miles west of Sumner. However, even farther east, narrow bands of post-sunrise snow pushed Grand Island up to 4, which set a daily record for the 18th and resulted in the largest April snowfall in 10 years. Temperature-wise, daytime highs across South Central Nebraska on the 18th only averaged 33-37 degrees, which was around 30 degrees below normal for the date and established record-cold daily maximums at Grand Island and Hastings. ||On the synoptic scale aloft, this event was powered by a highly amplified and slightly positively tilted mid-upper trough slowly lumbering across the Central United States. As a 100+ knot upper level jet streak rounded the base of the trough and took aim on the Central Plains, a mid level low and resultant area of enhanced frontogenesis became increasingly organized at 700 millibars, resulting in widespread snowfall. At mid-morning on the 18th, surface maps revealed that strong north-northwest winds were being promoted by a tight pressure gradient between a still-deepening 1000 millibar low over northeast Missouri and a 1028 millibar high centered over the Wyoming area.

This was a unique Tuesday afternoon and evening of weather across South Central Nebraska. Following a lull of several hours in the wake of overnight severe thunderstorms that produced widespread large hail and damaging winds, winter collided with spring to produce showers and elevated thunderstorms with a varied mix of sleet, hail and freezing rain. This was all made possible by strong frontogenesis and easterly warm air advection evident at 850 millibars flowing over the top of a shallow, cold low level airmass featuring mid-afternoon surface temperatures only between the low-20s and low-30s across most of the area, or 30+ degrees below normal for the date. In addition to widespread accumulating sleet in many locations, hail ranging from dime to quarter size was reported across various parts of the 24-county area mainly between 130-600 PM CDT. This included hail stones to quarter size at Fullerton, and nickel size at Grand Island airport, in Benedict and near Hastings. To cite just one example of the unusual nature of this event, as nickel size hail was falling with thunderstorms in the Hastings area at 530 PM CDT, the surface temperature was 25 degrees and north winds were sustained around 25 MPH, producing a wind chill temperature around 10 degrees. Despite this very cold surface regime, elevated thunderstorms thrived in an environment featuring most unstable CAPE of 500-1000 J/kg and 30-50 knots of effective deep layer vertical wind shear. ||Thunderstorms first broke out over counties west of Highway 281 between noon and 130 PM CDT, well to the west of a sharp synoptic cold front extending from extreme southeast Nebraska to south central Kansas. Through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, multiple clusters and line segments of fast-moving elevated storms streamed north-northeast across areas mainly near and east of Highway 281, before finally exiting the local area east of the Highway 81 corridor around 9 PM CDT. On the synoptic scale aloft, this event occurred just downstream from a powerful, closed mid level low centered over Colorado, which anchored an expansive and highly-amplified longwave trough dominating the western half of the United States. The rapid increase in afternoon thunderstorm development was aided by the arrival of the exit region of a 100+ knot south-southwest jet streak evident at 300 millibars. As it turned out, the 9th marked the first of three consecutive notably cold April days across South Central Nebraska, as temperatures failed to exceed the mid-to-upper 30s through the 11th.

The first major winter storm of the 2012-2013 season brought widespread snowfall of generally 3 to 9 inches to the entire 24-county area, along with several hours of blizzard conditions to most counties. Officially, this was the first blizzard to blast South Central Nebraska in nearly three years...since the Christmas 2009 event. Wind and blowing snow created white-out conditions during most of the afternoon and evening of Wednesday the 19th, and travel became difficult if not impossible with reports of numerous accidents and road closures, including Interstate 80. Bands of moderate to heavy snow initially overspread most areas during the early to mid-afternoon hours, in some cases starting out as a brief period of rain or a rain/sleet/snow mix. Through the late afternoon and especially evening hours, full-fledged blizzard conditions blossomed as an expansive shield of snow combined with steadily increasing north winds featuring sustained speeds generally 25-35 MPH but frequently gusting 40-45 MPH. During this time a few lightning strikes (thundersnow) were also noted within the heaviest snow bands. Generally between 8 PM on the 19th and 2 AM on Thursday the 20th, the back edge of moderate to heavy snow gradually cleared South Central Nebraska from west to east, releasing its grip on the Highway 281 corridor around midnight. Even in the wake of falling snow, late night wind speeds were slow to decrease, keeping blowing snow going into the morning hours of the 20th. ||The highest snowfall amounts of generally 5-9 focused within an east-west swath across the heart of the area, including much of the Interstate 80 and Highway 6 corridors. Per NWS cooperative observers, some of the highest totals included 10 near York, 9.1 at Central City and 8.1 at Hastings. To both the north and south of the primary snowfall zone, lesser amount of 3-4 were more common in the Ord, Greeley, Superior and Hebron areas. Liquid equivalent precipitation exceeded 1 inch in a few areas, including 1.04 at Grand Island. Interestingly, this was the highest calendar-day precipitation total of the entire year in Grand Island, which was quite unusual considering that the wettest days are almost always associated with spring or summer rainfall events. On the synoptic scale, this event was driven by a powerful, expansive mid-upper level trough translating eastward through the Central Plains, and featuring a closed 700 millibar low tracking across the northern half of Kansas. The most intense late afternoon and evening snow bands were associated with stout frontogenesis/deformation on the northwest side of the mid level circulation. At the surface, strong north winds and blizzard conditions were promoted by a tight pressure gradient on the north side of roughly 996 millibar low that tracked along the Kansas/Oklahoma border during the afternoon and evening.

Ending a lull of over two weeks without severe thunderstorms, this Saturday afternoon and early evening featured several reports of damaging winds, large hail and gustnadoes, primarily focused within southern and eastern counties of South Central Nebraska such as Webster, Clay, Nuckolls and Fillmore. During the height of the event between 4-7 PM CDT, some of the most significant wind damage occurred in the Hardy and Ruskin areas, where winds estimated to around 75 MPH overturned irrigation pivots, downed power poles and caved in several steel corn seed storage tanks. Also, 66-68 MPH wind gusts were measured near Deweese and at the York airport. Although several gustnadoes were reported in these areas, some of which resembled true tornadoes per storm chaser video, these were typically brief circulations focused along storm outflow and not directly associated with cloud base rotation. As for large hail, there were several reports of 1.5 to 2-inch diameter stones, including nearly 20 minutes of golf ball size hail east of Blue Hill. Very early in the event around 3 PM CDT, an elevated severe storm in far western South Central Nebraska dumped hail up to ping pong ball size northwest of Gothenburg. Rainfall-wise, although the progressive nature of most storms kept amounts under 2 inches, one localized corridor in far northern portions of the 24-county area between Spalding and Greeley tallied 3.28 inches from the cumulative effect of several passing storms. ||Breaking down event timing, the first severe storm of the day was the aforementioned elevated post-frontal hail storm that swept across western Dawson County around 3 PM CDT. This ended up being the only storm to reach severe criteria across the western half of South Central Nebraska, as the vast majority of severe weather occurred with surface-based storms erupting near the Highway 281 corridor between 4-5 PM CDT, and eventually exiting the area into eastern Nebraska between 7-8 PM CDT. These storms, which developed along a well-defined surface cold front, started out as three semi-discrete supercells. However, the supercells quickly morphed into a quasi-linear complex due to cell mergers and eastward-surging outflow boundaries in an environment characterized by surface temperature-dewpoint spreads around 20 degrees or greater. Behind the main line of surface based storms, a few severe post-frontal storms flared up near Highway 281 between 6-7 PM CDT, producing nickel to ping pong ball size hail in and just east of Grand Island. The last band of strong storms of the evening departed the Greeley and Nance County area around 9 PM CDT. ||On the synoptic scale this was a rather strongly forced severe weather event, as a vigorous shortwave trough migrated from eastern Colorado across southern Nebraska, while at the surface, a sharp north-south oriented cold front reached a position near the Highway 281 corridor by mid-afternoon. Mesoscale severe weather parameters around the time of initial surface-based supercell development included 40-50 knots of 0-6 kilometer vertical wind shear and 1500-2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE. Despite several reports of gustnadoes, a more substantial tornado threat was likely mitigated by somewhat meager boundary layer moisture with surface dewpoints only between 55-60F, resulting in higher cloud bases and enhanced outflow.

As a powerful, nearly vertically-stacked closed low pressure passed directly over the area on this Sunday, a few brief EF0 tornadoes touched down in Sherman and Valley Counties at mid-day, while later in the afternoon and evening strong northwest gradient wind gusts of 50-60 MPH buffeted much of the 24-county area. ||Although tornadic activity was originally not anticipated on this day, it ended up being a fairly classic cold-core mid level low pressure system event. Factoring into this development was very strong low level vorticity associated with a 988 millibar surface low in central Nebraska, which teamed with meager-but-sufficient surface based CAPE of around 200 J/kg to spawn a small supercell storm that tracked from southwest Sherman County across southern and eastern Valley County, before departing the local area to the northeast. The first EF0 tornado struck a farmstead between Litchfield and the Custer County line just before 12 PM CDT, destroying a metal outbuilding and doing minor damage to a home. Less than an hour later, another brief tornado set down southeast of Ord, with no damage reported. Once this lone tornadic storm moved out of the area, cooler and more stable air quickly rushed in behind the departing surface low, ending the severe weather threat. ||As the afternoon and evening wore on, northwest winds ramped up on the backside of the low as it tracked into northwest Iowa by sunset. Several automated sensors recorded sustained winds of 30-40 MPH and gusts to at least 50 MPH. Between 8 PM and 1230 AM CDT, 58-59 MPH gusts were recorded at the Grand Island, Ord and Aurora airports.

Leading up to this significant snow event, the preceding eight weeks had been unseasonably warm and dry across most of South Central Nebraska, with parts of the area likely drawing ever-closer to receiving a Category D2 (severe) drought designation from the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, this all changed during a roughly 42-hour period centered from Thursday evening the 2nd through Saturday afternoon the 4th. Within this time frame, much of the 24-county area experienced its biggest snowfall of the 2011-2012 winter season, with many areas tallying 6-13 inches of heavy, wet snow. Sporadic lightning accompanied some of the heaviest snow bands, resulting in ���thundersnow.��� In addition to (and prior to) the onset of snow, several counties mainly east of a Franklin to Grand Island line picked up rainfall ranging from 0.25-inch to over 1 inch. As a result, storm-total precipitation amounts from this system were quite notable for early February, and also quite welcome given the recent dry spell, with the majority of the 24-county area totaling between 1-2 inches. For parts of the area, including Hastings, these liquid-equivalent precipitation amounts were the highest on record for any two-day period during the month of February. ||Focusing on storm total snowfall, the heaviest corridor with amounts averaging at least 7 inches encompassed about 15 counties and was centered roughly 25 miles either side of a line extending from near Holdrege-Minden-Doniphan-Benedict. This corridor of heaviest snow included Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney. According to NWS Cooperative Observers, some of the highest amounts fell at Bradshaw (13.3 inches), Minden (12.2), York (11.0), Hastings (11.0) and Grand Island (9.4). The combination of the heavy, wet snow, along with north winds gusting to around 30 MPH for several hours, resulted in at least minor tree damage and power outages across the area. Outside the zone of heaviest snow, the far northern, western and southern portions of South Central Nebraska saw lesser amounts mainly in the 2-6 inch range, including locations such as Ord, Cozad, Elwood, and Hebron. For some of these areas outside the primary snow zone, this was not even the biggest snow event of the 2011-2012 winter season, with that distinction belonging to early-season December events. ||Looking at the timeline and meteorological background of this event, the culprit was a strong mid-upper level low pressure system that strengthened as it neared the Central Plains. Early in this event, temperatures remained warm enough to support rain as the first round of precipitation lifted across mainly eastern portions of South Central Nebraska between the evening of the 2nd and morning of the 3rd. As previously mentioned, rainfall amounts from this initial overnight round were commonly between 0.25 to over 0.75-inch, with one of the highest totals through sunrise on the 3rd featuring 0.97-inch near Shickley in Fillmore County. During the daylight hours on Friday the 3rd, the majority of the 24-county area experienced nothing more than off-and-on light rain or drizzle, while the initial band of heavy snow set up across western and north central Nebraska. Finally, as temperatures cooled on the evening of the 3rd, snow gradually picked up in coverage and intensity across the local area. The heaviest hourly rates of at least 1 inch per hour, along with pockets of thundersnow, focused between 8 PM on the 3rd and 6 AM on the 4th as the mid-level deformation zone pivoted across the area. During the daytime hours on Saturday the 4th, snow gradually decreased in intensity, with most additional accumulations in excess of 2 inches focused along and east of the Highway 281 corridor. One of the few areas where snow totals fell noticeably short of forecasted values included western Dawson County. This was largely due to the fact that concentrated snow bands ���jumped��� over this area, focusing off to the west early in the event, and then re-forming to the east during the evening of the 3rd into the morning of the 4th.

The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend was one of the overall windiest days of fall 2011 across South Central Nebraska, with several hours of sustained north-northwest winds around 40 MPH, accompanied by gusts into the 50-55 MPH range. The strongest winds primarily focused west of a line from Fullerton to Red Cloud, with a few of the highest measured gusts at automated airport sites including 55 MPH at Ord and 53 MPH at both Hastings and Lexington. These winds resulted in at least minor damage across the area, including in Greeley, where a light pole was tipped and shingles were blown off of some buildings. ||These winds occurred in the wake of a strong upper level low pressure system and associated powerful surface cold front, and were driven by the combination of a tight surface pressure gradient and deep mixing. The strongest winds buffeted the area for a 12-18 hour period, as the initial surge arrived during the pre-dawn hours. Most locations didn't reach peak intensity until late morning or early afternoon, and speeds quickly subsided by sunset or shortly thereafter. Attesting to the strength of the surface pressure gradient, 8 AM CST observations revealed a 20-millibar gradient across the state of Nebraska, ranging from 1033mb in the western Panhandle to around 1013mb in the far southeast corner of the state. ||The combination of these strong winds, along with very low relative humidity values dropping to near 20% or lower, also resulted in elevated to critical fire danger across much of the region. At least a few grass fires were sparked, including one near Alda in Hall County that was detected by NWS Doppler radar as the smoke plume rose in height.

The mid-to-late evening hours on this Sunday brought a rather widespread damaging wind event to the northwest half of South Central Nebraska, affecting locations mainly northwest of a line from Alma-Hastings-Osceola. The storm-mode featured a fast-moving, northeast-propagating linear mesoscale convective system (MCS) that first entered Furnas County in the far southwest corner of the area around 8 PM CDT, and eventually exited far northeast counties such as Nance and Greeley between 1130 PM and midnight CDT. Over the course of these four hours, there were multiple reports of damaging winds in the 60-80 MPH range, but only few reports of large hail, highlighted by ping pong ball size stones near Holdrege. Measured wind gusts at airport sites included 68 MPH at Kearney and 64 MPH at Grand Island. Extensive tree damage was reported in several communities, including Edison, Kearney, Grand Island, Loup City, North Loup, Scotia and Greeley, just to name a few. In Grand Island, a 50-60 foot cottonwood tree narrowly missed a home as it fell, while on the west edge of Holdrege, an empty trailer home was blown over. In addition to tree and power line damage, considerable crop damage resulted across the area, primarily from green snap of rapidly growing corn. Due to the fast-moving nature of the primary squall line, rainfall amounts in most areas were no more than 0.50 to 1.50 inches. ||The initial clusters of storms that eventually congealed into the northward-propagating MCS developed during the late afternoon and early evening hours across central and northwest Kansas, near a subtle east-west front and within a zone of steep low-level lapse rates. A very unstable airmass was poised north of this surface front, with dewpoints well into the 70s across nearly all of South Central Nebraska. Storms evolved into prolific wind-producers thanks to efficient cold pool generation, aided by the development of a modest 25-30 knot low-level jet focused near the Nebraska-Kansas border. Mesoscale parameters during the early stages of the event featured high MLCAPE of 3000-4000 J/kg, in the presence of at least 30 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear. Aloft, the synoptic pattern featured an expansive mid-level ridge across the southern states, and a broad trough across the northwest United States, with the local area positioned on the southern periphery of the stronger west-southwest flow between these two features.

In terms of widespread, high-impact severe weather, the 24-hour period commencing on Sunday evening the 19th was likely the worst of the 2011 severe weather season for much of South Central Nebraska. The initial rounds of significant severe storms targeted the area during a 7-hour stretch centered from 9 PM CDT Sunday evening to 4 AM CDT Monday morning. During this nocturnal event, multiple severe supercell and multicell storms pounded mainly the northwest half of South Central Nebraska, or locations northwest of a line from Beaver City to Grand Island to Osceola. Generally speaking, severe weather during this 7-hour period came in three separate rounds, although there was some overlap in both time and area. Despite a favorable environment for tornadic development, no tornadoes were confirmed during this event. ||The first round of severe weather, centered between 9 PM and 11 PM CDT, involved one large, intense supercell storm that drifted east out of southwest Nebraska, primarily impacting Furnas, Gosper, Harlan and Phelps Counties. This storm resulted in several reports of destructive hail up to tennis ball size, and winds of at least 60-70 MPH. One of the hardest hit areas was northern Furnas County in and around Cambridge and Arapahoe, where damage reports included the displacement of a 5-ton air handling unit atop the hospital in Cambridge, and a stock trailer thrown into a corn field.||As the initial supercell started to gradually weaken, a new area of vigorous severe storm development took place north of Interstate 80, expanding in coverage between 11 PM and 2 AM CDT. The most intense storm during this time frame tracked nearly due east from Sherman County to northern Polk County, with reports along the way including hail to the size of tennis balls and baseballs. Some of the worst known wind damage occurred in Merrick County, where estimated winds to 80 MPH destroyed an old grain elevator between Clarks and Silver Creek.||As activity ramped up north of Interstate 80, the third episode of severe weather got underway back to the southwest around 1230 AM CDT, as a new cluster of storms entered the Dawson to Furnas County corridor from the west, impacting many of the same areas as the initial supercell a few hours prior. Yet again, the Cambridge area saw strong winds and hail to around baseball size. In a gradually weakening state, this complex of storms eventually rode northeast through the Kearney, Grand Island and Central City areas, before all storms finally exited South Central Nebraska around 430 AM CDT.||This long-lasting onslaught of severe weather resulted from a very favorable synoptic severe weather setup for this time of year, with South Central Nebraska positioned slightly north of a well-defined surface warm front lifting northward from Kansas into southeast Nebraska. Aloft, a powerful, highly amplified mid-level trough was centered over the Central Rockies, spreading increasing wind fields and upper level divergence downstream over the Central Plains. In addition, a very strong southerly low-level jet stream took direct aim on South Central Nebraska during the evening and overnight hours, with speeds at the 850-millibar level increasing to 60-70 knots near the Nebraska-Kansas border. Just to name a few, some of the favorable severe weather parameters late in the evening included at least 2000-3000 J/kg most-unstable CAPE, 50-60 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear, and 30-40 knots of surface to 1-kilometer low-level vertical shear. Despite the widespread coverage of storms, locally heavy rainfall totals were held down in the 1-3 inch range, with no significant flooding impacts.

With 11 confirmed tornadoes, several of them significant, this Monday afternoon proved to be the most active tornado day in over three years within South Central Nebraska, since 29 May 2008. This severe weather outbreak primarily targeted western and northeast portions of the area, largely sparing locations south of the Highway 6 corridor between Holdrege and Geneva. The final tornado breakdown per the EF Scale included two EF3, four EF2, two EF1 and three EF0. Despite considerable damage to mainly rural residences, these tornadoes resulted in no fatalities and only one known non-life threatening injury when a semi truck was tipped over near Elm Creek in Buffalo County. This Elm Creek tornado was also the only one to directly strike a community, although there were several close calls within a mile or two of places such as Amherst, Hampton and Bradshaw. Interestingly, tornadic storms also spared the immediate Tri-Cities population centers of Grand Island, Hastings and Kearney, despite damaging events occurring nearby to both the west and the east. This was largely due to the fact that an expansive mid-level dry intrusion became anchored over central sections of South Central Nebraska, protecting this area from storm development. In addition to tornadoes, the afternoon also featured several reports of large hail up to baseball size, and damaging winds up to 80 MPH. ||This outbreak focused between 3 and 8 PM CDT, as a seasonably powerful mid-level low pressure system lifted into western Kansas and Nebraska out of Colorado, deepening and closing off as it did so. Strong wind fields aloft were in place at all levels, with a 50-70 knot jet streak nosing into the region between the 500 and 300 millibar level, and an 850-millibar low-level jet accelerating to between 30 and 40 knots. At the surface, a well-defined 992-millibar low pressure center migrated from north central Kansas around the noon hour, to near Hastings by early evening. A synoptically classic array of surface boundaries evolved around this low pressure center, with a warm front lifting north across South Central Nebraska, while a cold front and dryline pushed in from the west and southwest. In addition, a well-defined inverted surface trough axis extended nearly due north from the surface low into north central Nebraska. The net combination synoptic and mesoscale features yielded a very favorable setup for tornadic supercells across the area. At mid-afternoon, shear and instability parameters included approximately 50 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear, 15-25 knots of 0-1 kilometer low-level vertical wind shear, 150 to over 300 m2/s2 of surface to 1 kilometer storm-relative helicity and 2000-4000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE. ||In general, there were two distinct corridors of tornadic storms across the area, one focused west of Highway 281, and one mainly east of Highway 281 and along and north of Interstate 80. The first tornadic storm of the day entered southwestern Harlan County around 3 PM CDT, having produced several damaging tornadoes across northwest and north central Kansas since early afternoon. This storm spawned an EF1 tornado in the Stamford area, before weakening. Within minutes however, a newly developed tornadic storm started tracking north from Phelps County into southwestern Buffalo County. Between 330 and 445 PM CDT, this storm dropped several tornadoes from near Elm Creek, to north of Amherst, including the first EF3 of the day. This EF3 near Amherst intensified to at least 3/4 of a mile wide, and significantly damaged or destroyed at least 10 homes. A veteran storm chaser described this tornado as being one of the strongest he had ever witnessed as it tracked north of Amherst. An additional tornadic storm that initiated in Buffalo County, along with subsequent storm-scale interactions from further development, moved north and produced several more tornadoes between 430 and 545 PM CDT, including an EF2 southwest of Rockville, and an EF1 that struck the Davis Creek Reservoir campground south of North Loup. ||While tornadoes were ongoing across western portions of the area, vigorous new supercell development took place in eastern portions of South Central Nebraska around 430 PM CDT, just east of the surface triple-point. Two storms in close proximity to one another both became tornadic around 530 PM CDT near the Hamilton and York County line. The first produced an EF2 that crossed Interstate 80 southwest of Hampton. As this tornado moved north of Hampton, two farm workers fashioned a narrow escape by sprinting nearly 100 yards to an underground windmill pit and jumping inside as the tornado passed overhead. Just to the east, the other storm also dropped an EF2 tornado, which also happened to be the longest continuous tornado track of the day, traveling 15 miles from southwest of Bradshaw to near the York-Polk County line. Within a few minutes of this tornado's demise, the cyclic supercell quickly put down the second EF3 tornado of the day, tracking over 9 miles from east of Polk to west-northwest of Osceola. This tornado grew to around 1/2-mile wide, and damaged several farms along the way, with some of the most significant damage along Highway 92. After this tornado dissipated around 620 PM CDT, the parent supercell and other severe storms farther west finally lifted north out of South Central Nebraska. Although this ended the main severe weather event for the evening, a few additional strong to severe storms affected primarily Fillmore and Furnas Counties between 630 and 830 PM CDT. ||Taking a backseat to significant tornadoes on this day were hail and heavy rainfall. Some of the largest reported hailstones included baseball size in Buffalo County, and tennis ball size in York County. Rainfall-wise, although there were no widespread flooding impacts, localized rural flooding occurred as many locations received 1-3 inches in a rather short time. Some northwestern portions of South Central Nebraska, including parts of Valley, Greeley and Sherman Counties measured 48-hour rainfall totals into the 3-4 inch range.

The evening hours of Memorial Day 2011 featured the most widespread damaging wind event of the spring severe weather season across South Central Nebraska, as a narrow, intense line of storms marched from west to east across the entire area. Along nearly the entire length of this north-south oriented squall line were estimated or measured wind gusts of 60-80 MPH, with automated equipment at the Lexington airport recording the highest-known measured gust of 90 MPH. As a result, widespread wind damage primarily to trees, power lines and outbuildings occurred across multiple counties. Although there several preliminary reports of brief tornadoes along the leading edge of the squall line, including one near Cozad early in the evening, radar data along with photographic and video evidence suggests that the vast majority of these reports were actually gustnadoes, which are brief, but sometimes strong circulations associated with outflow and not connected to cloud base rotation. Most of these gustnado reports focused west of the Highway 281 corridor. In addition, there were also sporadic reports of quarter size hail, but damaging straight-line wind along the surging outflow was the main story by far. Just to name a few, wind highlights included: a measured 74 MPH gust at Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island with several reports of structural damage within the city including a destroyed mini-storage building; a measured gust to 83 MPH at the Ord airport with considerable damage to a hangar; three empty grain bins blown off their foundations and an unsecured trailer rolled near Strang in Fillmore County. ||Focusing on timing, the initial severe storm development took place across north central Nebraska during mid-afternoon, with the developing severe squall line first creeping southward into western Dawson County around 7 PM CDT. Thereafter, the line continued to build south into Kansas as it marched east, crossing the Highway 281 corridor mainly between 9 and 10 PM CDT, and finally exiting eastern portions of South Central Nebraska between 11 PM and midnight CDT. ||The synoptic and mesoscale environment was certainly ripe for a damaging, linear wind event. Earlier in the day, a strong pressure gradient brought hours of sustained 30-40 MPH winds and frequent gusts of 45-55 MPH to South Central Nebraska, as a 994 millibar surface low pressure system organized near the Colorado-Kansas border. Aloft, a powerful, negatively tilted upper level trough centered across the Central and Northern Rockies gradually ejected northeast toward the Northern Plains, allowing considerable large scale forcing and increasing wind fields to overspread Nebraska, including 60-80 knot southwesterly flow at 500 millibars. Lower in the atmosphere, southerly low-level jet winds at 850 millibars increased to around 60 knots. At the surface, a pronounced cold front sliced through the area, providing sharp linear forcing for development of the squall line. Mesoscale severe weather parameters early in the evening included mixed layer CAPE values around 2500 J/kg, and deep-layer vertical wind shear generally 50-70 knots. As the evening wore on, 0-1 kilometer low-level bulk shear ramped up to notably strong values of 40-50 knots, providing a very favorable environment for damaging winds and gustnadoes.

After a remarkably snow-free start to winter, the last few days of 2010 finally brought the first widespread accumulations of the season to South Central Nebraska, as a powerful upper level low pressure system tracked across the region, following a path from northeast Colorado to southeast South Dakota. The first piece of this storm affected northwest sections of South Central Nebraska on Thursday the 30th with very light snow and freezing rain. However, the main event impacted the area during the pre-dawn and daytime hours on Friday, New Year's Eve, with accumulating snow ending in most places by early afternoon. Storm total snowfall varied from southeast to northwest, ranging from only around 1 inch in the Hebron and York areas, up into the 4-6 inch range along a corridor including Cozad, Ord and Greeley. In between, the majority of South Central Nebraska tallied between 1-3 inches. Due to the fact that the main part of the storm tracked west-northwest of the area, the heaviest snow, strongest winds, and worst visibilities focused across northern and western Nebraska into the Dakotas, where blizzard conditions were reported.

This Saturday featured one of the first powerful cold fronts of the winter season across South Central Nebraska, as a deep, vertically-stacked low pressure system slowly lumbered from eastern Nebraska into Iowa over the course of the day. The combination of intense low-level cold air advection, and a tight surface pressure gradient between the low pressure center and a strong surface high building southward through the Northern Plains resulted in several hours of strong northwest winds, especially during the morning and early afternoon hours. While most all of South Central Nebraska observed frequent wind gusts between 45-57 MPH, the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in Grand Island recorded a 62 MPH gust during the pre-dawn hours, marking the strongest measured gust of the day.

Two distinct rounds of severe weather affected South Central Nebraska on this Saturday, one during the very early morning hours, and another, more widespread event that rolled in during the mid to late evening hours. The first round of storms flared up around midnight, in a northwest-southeast corridor stretching from Dawson County to Franklin County. These storms initiated along a rather subtle low to mid level convergence zone, in a very unstable airmass featuring 4000-5000 J/kg most-unstable CAPE and 30-40 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear. Severe weather reports included estimated wind gusts to 60 MPH, and hail up to quarter size, along with locally heavy rainfall. ||Following a lull that lasted through the day, the evening hours brought one of the most significant severe weather episodes of the summer to the area, as a concentrated swath of damaging 60-90 MPH wind gusts swept eastward along and near the Interstate 80 corridor. These severe storms actually resulted from a merger between storms moving east from Southwest Nebraska, and other storms dropping south from North Central Nebraska. These initial storms developed in closer proximity to a surface cold front and trough axis, trailing southward from low pressure centered over the Dakotas. Around sunset, these smaller storm clusters merged as they entered Dawson and Buffalo Counties, quickly evolving into a forward-propagating mesoscale convective system (MCS) with damaging outflow winds. As storms first entered South Central Nebraska, the mesoscale environment featured 3000-4500 J/kg most-unstable CAPE, and around 30 knots of deep-layer vertical shear. Over the course of around 3 hours, wind damage was widespread near the Interstate 80 corridor, but especially within Buffalo County, where gusts estimated as high as 90 MPH resulted in numerous damage reports. To name just a few, these reports included a roof torn from a home, numerous grain bins damaged or destroyed, and a number of power poles snapped, causing power outages in the area. Nebraska Public Power District estimated 32 miles of power lines and 218 individual power structures were blown down in the Buffalo County area. Multiple reports were also received of damage to area trees and crops. Farther east, winds were not quite as strong, but still maintained severe levels as gusts to 68 MPH were measured at the Hastings airport, and 61 MPH at the Aurora airport. In addition to severe winds, there were also a few reports of hail during the evening, with the largest being golf ball size north of Lexington.

Although the brunt of severe thunderstorm activity focused just to the south across Northern Kansas, two separate rounds of isolated severe weather affected parts of South Central Nebraska. The first round of severe storms moved in around sunrise on Saturday morning, passing through areas mainly south of Interstate 80 and west of Highway 281. This MCS first organized across Northeast Colorado and Southwest Nebraska shortly after midnight, before rolling east-southeast into the area. These storms were slightly elevated, focusing along the nose of a low level jet, and to the north of a nearly stationary, east-west surface front draped across Central Kansas. The synoptic environment featured considerable instability, with MUCAPE values of 1000-3000 J/kg, and deep-layer wind shear of 30-40 knots. These storms produced hail up to quarter size, and also damaging winds, mainly across Furnas, Harlan and Phelps Counties. Near Funk, estimated 80 mph winds downed approximately 60 power poles. ||Once these morning storms moved out, the remainder of the daytime and evening hours were quiet. Then, starting around midnight and lasting into the pre-dawn hours on Sunday, additional strong to severe storms flared up along the nose of a strong 40-50 knot low level jet, riding over a warm front that had moved north to near the Nebraska-Kansas border. In the presence of around 2000 J//kg of MUCAPE and deep-layer shear around 40 knots, a few of these storms produced hail up to quarter size across several counties near the Highway 281 corridor.

Early on in the afternoon, a few scattered thunderstorms developed across eastern portions of South Central Nebraska, with one severe thunderstorm across Thayer County, where quarter to baseball size hail was reported. The main show came later during the early evening hours, after a surface warm front had moved north into the area. Near the front, good instability and shear was present, as was moisture. Scattered thunderstorms developed along the edge of the mid level cap near the surface front, and with the environment present, some became strong to severe. The main storm of the day developed in Buffalo County, then moved east across Hall and Hamilton Counties. In each of these counties, this storm produced a tornado, with the largest occurring in Hamilton County, along Highway 34 near the town of Aurora. This tornado caused EF2 damage to a home in its path, before dissipating a few miles west of Aurora. Other damage caused by this storm included downed power poles and derailed train cars, as well as roof damage to the Iams plant caused by strong inflow winds. Weaker tornadoes were reported on the south side of Grand Island in Hall County, as well as north of Gibbon in Buffalo County, where EF1 damage occurred at a few farmsteads. Penny to tennis ball size hail was also reported across the area, causing damage to crops, with one report of broken house windows in Valley County.

A stalled surface boundary draped through the region, aided later by an increasing low level jet, provided a focus for the development of thunderstorms across South Central Nebraska. Warmer air aloft kept southern areas capped, with activity generally confined to areas along and north of Highway 6, and west of Highway 183. Decent shear and instability allowed for thunderstorms to become strong to severe, and along with numerous reports of hail to the size of quarters and larger, wind gusts of 65 to 75 mph were also reported. The hardest hit area was across eastern Buffalo County and western Hall County. Along with thousands of acres of crops being damaged or destroyed in this area, the town of Shelton was also affected by the strongest winds. Damage reports included a metal building and billboard being destroyed, as well as trees and power lines knocked down. There were many other reports across the area of damage to homes and vehicles caused by the large hail.

A stout surface cold front moved south through the Central Plains during the morning hours of the 12th, with strong high pressure building in across the region behind the front. Along with impressive pressure rises behind the front, stronger winds aloft were able to mix down to the surface, bringing northwest winds which increased during the afternoon hours to near 40 mph, with gusts of 50 to 60 mph. There were a few reports of brief power outages from lines touching, along with one semi truck accident.

A surface cold front passed through the Central Plains during the overnight hours of the 25th and into the morning hours of the 26th, bringing strong northwesterly winds to the region. Strong high pressure building south from Montana created a tight pressure gradient, bringing sustained winds of over 40 mph and gusts near 60 mph across portions of south central Nebraska during the afternoon hours of the 26th. These winds blew around construction barricades and signs, and caused scattered temporary losses of power.

A significant severe weather outbreak occurred during the late afternoon and evening of May 29th. Several tornadoes were reported from near Elwood to north of York. Two tornadoes caused damage in the city of Kearney and one occurred just to the south of town. Another tornado damaged homes and power poles near Aurora. Another tornado started in north-central Kansas and entered south-central Nebraska near Hubbell. Very strong winds moved down a portion of Interstate 80 and pushed cars and trucks off of the roadway near Aurora. Other areas of south-central Nebraska received heavy rains and hail. Hail to the size of baseballs was reported near Arapahoe in Furnas County. These storms also produce a lot of rainfall over areas that had fairly wet ground. Several areas of flooding were noted in the Platte and Republican River valleys.

The first major winter storm of season coated south central Nebraska with a treacherous blanket of ice during the morning hours of December 1. The freezing rain resulted in a wide array of travel problems for the area. The heaviest ice accumulations, in the neighborhood of one half inch, occurred mainly along and north of Interstate 80. However, there were several reports of a coating of one-quarter to one-half inch of ice down to the Kansas border. There were reports of sporadic power outages and tree damage throughout the area. Many events scheduled for Saturday, December 1st were postponed. Fortunately, warmer air surged north and changed the freezing rain to rain by late morning, and also allowed for some of the ice to melt.

A wild afternoon and early evening of high winds, hail, flooding and even a brief tornado was had over south central Nebraska. The tornado occurred on the east side of Hastings. This EF0 tornado traveled on the ground for about 1.5 miles and lifted around the Hastings Motorsports Track just southeast of town. Damage was minor. Elsewhere in Hastings, tree damage was excessive due to straight line winds near 70 mph. The hardest hit area was the eastern half of town where large trees were toppled and some damage was had to homes and other buildings. Hastings was the beginning of a corridor of high winds, which extended east along U.S. Highway 6 across Clay County and into Fillmore County. Another hard hit area was from Harvard to Saronville. A 125-foot tall grain bin was completely destroyed at a grain storage facility near Saronville. Ironically, the bin had just been completed. Over $100,000 in electrical equipment for the facility was lost as well. Winds were estimated at 80 mph and were enough to pull the anchor bolts out of the cement foundation. Further east, the town of Fairmont in Fillmore County was pounded as well. The roof was torn from the local car wash and tree damage was extensive. Power was lost to many parts of Fillmore County, including the Fillmore Central Middle School where classes were cancelled the next day. In rural areas, pivots were overturned, outbuildings damaged and the corn crop was trampled by the wind. Damage to corn and soybeans is hard to assess, but will likely reach several million dollars. Heavy rain of 2 to 5 inches resulted in water issues around the area as well. Many streets in Hastings were flooded and there were numerous road closures on county roads across Adams and Clay counties. There were sporadic reports of large hail and high winds elsewhere in south central Nebraska that afternoon and evening. Finally, in far northern Valley County near the Garfield County line, heavy rain caused flash flooding to occur on Highway 11.

A wide variety of significant winter weather began impacting portions of south central Nebraska during the day on Friday (12/29) and continued through Saturday night (12/30), before exiting the area on Sunday (12/31). Freezing rain, sleet, and snow began Friday afternoon in portions of Dawson county, with snowfall amounts as high as 9 inches. By Friday night most of the precipitation had turned to sleet and freezing rain, pressing further east to around highway 281. This led to significant ice accumulations which continued through Saturday night. The areas just west of Grand Island and Hastings received significant ice accrual from the storm, with up to an inch of ice reported from Wood River and Juniata. Many locations received at least one half inch of ice. The deposits of ice have caused widespread tree damage, along with power outages, and damage to power lines and poles. |Snowfall reports up to Sunday morning showed the heaviest snowfall fell west of a line from Greeley to Alma. Several small towns were running via generators. The town of Holdrege was expecting to finally have the transmission lines repaired and switched from generator to commercial power on January 17.

A major winter storm spun its way onto the plains. With mild temperatures in place at the start of the storm, precipitation began as rain, and pretty much stayed as rain. In fact, freezing rain blanketed the majority of south central Nebraska on the night of the 19th and during the day on the 20th. By the end of the 20th, a fresh coat of ice resulted in broken tree limbs, power lines and power poles, especially along and west of U.S. Highway 281 across south central Nebraska. Some of the worst damage was west of Kearney into Dawson County where some towns didn���t have power for several days. Ironically, roads and sidewalks across the area were not terribly slick as air temperatures near 32 degrees and unseasonably warm ground temperatures combined to limit the surface icing. A small section of south central Nebraska measured 1 to 2 inches of snow toward the end of the event, primarily across Valley, Sherman, northwest Buffalo and northern Dawson counties.

Thunderstorms developed in the late afternoon southwest of Holdrege and moved east across the region. These thunderstorms brought hail up to the size of baseballs and a tornado to parts of south-central Nebraska. Hailstones up to 2 inches in diameter damaged homes and trees in the Holdrege area and gusty winds brought down power lines across northern Phelps county. The storms increased in intensity as they moved toward the tri-cites. One tornado briefly sat down in eastern Buffalo county where it destroyed a barn south of Ravenna. Baseball sized hail was reported in the central and northern portions of Grand Island where cars, homes and trees were damaged. Two-inch diameter hail was reported across northern Adams county and gusty winds also caused power outages in the Trumbull and Hanson areas. The storms continued to rumble to the east during the evening hours and dropped hail up to the size of golf balls and wind gusts around 70 mph. Large tree limbs were downed in Shelby and Fullerton. The severe weather delayed several area football games.

Severe thunderstorms rumbled across south-central Nebraska during the evening hours. These storms brought winds of 60 to 70 mph and rains of 1 to 3 inches. A few locations reported hailstones with the largest being the size of golf balls. The storms started out near highway US 183 and moved east. The winds caused damage to trees, roofs and shingles in the Holdrege area. A Holdrege lumber supply company lost a large storage building to the wind. Strong winds brought down power lines north of Shelton in Buffalo county. Outbuildings were damaged and large tree limbs were downed in Franklin county around the communities of Franklin and Macon. A center pivot irrigation system was overturned near Holstein in Adams county. By 10:30 pm CDT the storms had reached highway US 81 where winds of 60 mph caused more damage. The outer walls collapsed at a home that was under construction in York. Damage to trees, roofs and a carport was caused by the storm in York. Farther south, several trees were damaged or uprooted and some roof damage was reported in the Hebron area. There was sporadic power outages noted across the region. Corn and bean crops had limited damage from these storms.

Penny to nickel sized hail along with 60mph winds pounded the Gibbon area for an extended period of time. The storm then moved towards Shelton where golf ball to baseball-sized hail along with 60 mph winds broke windows, destroyed siding, and caused extensive crop damage along its path. The strong winds also destroyed a storage shed and blew over a grain trailer near Shelton. The storm continued on towards Wood River producing 60 mph winds and golf ball sized hail. In Hastings, large tree limbs were blown down damaging power lines and homes. Tents at the annual Hastings cottonwood festival were also destroyed. Crop assessors found several soybean fields that were completely wiped out and corn fields with 50 percent defoliation southeast of Axtell. Nickel sized hail was accompanied by 35mph winds 2 W of Kenesaw. Storms farther to the west damaged a house in Cambridge.

Several intense clusters of thunderstorms developed over western Nebraska and continually rolled into south-central Nebraska during the evening hours resulting in numerous high wind reports. There was considerable damage to a tin storage building in Elwood where much of the roof was ripped off. There was also damage to combines housed within the storage building. There were numerous reports of trees down blocking roads and knocking out power in Kearney and Grand Island. Some of the trees fell on homes. Much of southwest Kearney lost power. There was an anhydrous leak near Shelton and there were also large trees down throughout Shelton with some falling on area homes.

Thunderstorms developed during the morning hours and continued to rumble across the area into the afternoon. Some of the storms produced hail to the size of walnuts and wind gusts to 75 mph. A semi-truck was blown off Interstate 80 just west of Giltner. A roof was blown off of a garage in Harvard along with tree and shingle damage in the town. Tree limbs were downed and a grain bin damaged near Stromsburg. The Polk County News reported "Electricity was cut off from most of Polk County for a good portion of the afternoon as winds damaged a sub-station just north of Stromsburg and power lines were downed in various parts of the county."

A powerful storm system, which pounded western Nebraska the previous night, finally moved east and spread high winds and blinding snow across south central Nebraska. At the height of the storm, winds of 40 to 60 mph resulted in "white out" conditions in open country. Snow amounts from the storm weren't heavy, generally ranging from one to four inches, but the high winds caused havoc with travel. Most schools were closed, or closed early for the day. Interstate 80 was closed west of York due to near zero visibility. County and secondary were drifted shut as the wind whipped the snow into drifts 10 to 15 feet tall in some places. There were several accidents on local roads, but no serious injuries to report. The one day Blizzard was reminiscent of a January 1996 blizzard, which brought winds over 70 mph and 2 to 4 inches of snow to the region, and crippled travel.

Though well predicted, the severe weather and flooding on the night of May 11 was even worse than imagined. Thunderstorms ravaged a large part of south central Nebraska with hail, high winds, a tornado and catastrophic flooding.During evening and early morning hours, 4 to 12 inches of fell from Dawson County east to York County. At Kenesaw and Wood River, over 11 inches of rain was measured. The city of Grand Island set a rainfall record for a single event with 7.21 inches of rain. Statically, this event was a 100 year rain and flood event for the area. In Wood River, 12 people were evacuated due to rising water. It was estimated every structure in Wood River sustained some sort of storm damage and wave after wave of severe thunderstorms pounded the town. Twelve homes sustained severe damage. The Wood River crested at 9 feet in town and flooding most streets. Thirty-six homes were evacuated in the city of Grand Island as flooding was rampant over the west and north part of the city. The city's sewer system handled about 75 million gallons of water, or about 6 times the normal amount during the storm. Many parts of the business and residential districts sustained flood damage as the Prairie, Silver and Moores Creeks flooded. The Wood River near Alda, which had been dry for three years, tied a record with a crest of 12.2 feet early on the 12th. Elsewhere, three miles of roads were washed out in Kearney County and 15 miles of roads were damaged in Merrick County. Ten bridges were damaged in Merrick County as well. In York County, emergency rescues, one by helicopter and one by air boat, were made to retrieve stranded people trapped by flood waters southeast of Waco and near McCool Junction. Water was over Highway 81 north of Fairmont at the height of the event. In Fillmore and York counties, 5 to 8 inches of rain fell. Further west, a section of Highway 40 was washed out near Miller. Flood damage was in the tens of millions of dollars, with 12 to 15 million dollars in damage in Hall County alone. As flooding rains soaked the region, large hail, high winds and one tornado pounded the area. Hastings was particularly hard hit as baseball size hail and high winds belted the city for about 20 minutes. Literally, thousands of vehicles and homes sustained damage, especially on the east side of town, including downtown. Damage was estimated at 40 million, and that may be conservative and insurance agencies processed claims. State Farm Insurance was expecting to process 3,000 claims alone. Thirty-three people left their homes for shelter provided by the city. In Wood River, a tornado clipped the south side of town. In Merrick County, two Union Pacific trains derailed due to high winds and a tower for KMMJ radio was blown down north of town. A communications tower was also destroyed in Buffalo County by high winds. There were widespread, though brief, power outages in the area. At one point, about 60 percent of the city of Lexington was without power. Twelve center pivot irrigation systems were damaged in Fillmore County. High winds destroyed a barn southeast of Gothenburg and grain binds south of Darr in Dawson County. Officials estimate, 2800 homes and businesses had damaged in Grand Island. Both Hall and Adams Counties were declared Federal Disasters Areas.

Winds gusting to 55 knots (64 mph) for about nine hours caused minor property damage over a section of south-central Nebraska. The strongest winds were along and north of Interstate 80. The automated weather stations at the York and Aurora airports recorded 64 mph and 63 mph wind gusts respectively. Power was lost to about 700 customers in York for a time due to broken power lines. A 60 mph wind gust was recorded at Grand Island and 59 mph wind gusts at Ord and Kearney. Sustained winds of 39 knots (40 to 45 mph) were common throughout the day.

Severe thunderstorms produced widespread damage to trees and structures in south central Nebraska. The worst damage occurred near Central City. 90 mph winds destroyed five grain bins and ripped about 20 rafters from a farm house near town. The occupants were uninjured. The next morning, nearly 70 volunteers assisted in the clean-up of over 30 tons of mangled steel. Most of the damage in the area was from trees falling on power lines, cars and houses. A tree fell on a house and into the bedroom of a little girl in Polk County. The girl was uninjured. In Furnas County, heavy rain and the eventual runoff caused flooding on the Turkey Creek east of Edison during the predawn hours.

Widespread severe thunderstorms ripped across most of south-central Nebraska. Tornadoes were reported southwest of Sumner and east of Hebron. High winds and hail were common place. 60 to 80 mph winds rolled across a large part of the area. Buffalo County was without power for a time. A tree fell on one wing of the assisted living center in Ravenna. In Furnas county, large trees were knocked over and several center irrigation pivots were damaged or destroyed. A grain bin was blown away east of Kearney and road signs were blown down throughout Buffalo County. Heavy rain also caused flash flood in Howard and Greeley counties where county roads were damaged or washed out.

Severe thunderstorms rumbled across south-central Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening hours. These storms produced hail, strong winds and a few tornadoes. The storms started out in Gosper county and moved northeast. There were several reports of funnel clouds in eastern Gosper county. As the storms continued into Dawson and Buffalo counties, storm chasers continued to report funnels and hail. The first tornado set down in southeast Sherman county near Rockville and was observed for a few minutes. The next twister was in southwest Howard county near Farwell. Another tornado was reported by a sheriff's deputy near the junction of Nebraska highways 92 and 11. These tornadoes were in open county and caused little in the way of damage. The town of Elba in Howard county has pummeled by large hail for period of time. Broken windows and trees stripped of leaves were common throughout the small community. The most destructive tornado occurred near the village of Cushing. The tornado set down on a farm west of town and damaged several outbuildings and threw irrigation pipe across a field. The tornado then cut a path across the south end of town, again damaging several outbuildings and some minor damage to a home. The tornado dissipated just southeast of town. Other storms south of these produced strong winds from Grand Island to near Hebron. Trees and power poles were damaged from the strong winds.

Isolated thunderstorms rumbled over south-central Nebraska dropping some hail and producing strong winds. By far, the strongest winds were reported just west of Geneva. A downburst produced wind gusts to 90 mph and damaged two farmsteads. Six grain bins were damaged and at least 1 center pivot system was toppled. Powers lines were snapped just north of Highway 41 on county road 9.

Thunderstorms moving across south-central Nebraska produced little rain, but mainly strong winds. The winds toppled trees in Hall, Howard, Merrick, Polk and Adams counties. Several communities were without power for a time. The wind also stirred dust from freshly plowed fields which resulted in near-zero visibility at times. A 3 vehicle pile-up on the Polk/Butler county line east of Shelby resulted in 9 injuries. The poor visibility due to blowing dust contributed to the cause of the accident.

A rapidly deepening low pressure resulted in widespread winds of 40 to 60 mph across all of south central Nebraska. Wind gusts of 60 mph were reported at Kearney and Lexington, 58 mph at Holdrege, 56 mph at Grand Island and 55 mph at Hastings. Damage was sporadic over the region. A sign was ripped from a furniture store in Holdrege. In Grand Island, a light pole broke at an auto dealership and damaged four vehicles as it fell to the ground. Damage to the vehicles along was estimated at $14,000. There were numerous reports of tree damage and wind power line damage elsewhere in the area. The wind also kicked up dirt from freshly plowed fields. As a result, visibilities were down to 2 to 3 miles at times.

Severe thunderstorms rolled south across areas of south-central Nebraska along and east of U.S. Highway 281. Initially, thunderstorms northeast of Grand Island spawned several funnels and at least one tornado. The tornado was sighted about 10 miles west of Fullerton along Highway 22 but no damage was reported. As the thunderstorms continued to march south, numerous wind and hail reports were noted. A semi-tractor was blown over on Interstate 80 in western Hamilton county. The driver was uninjured. Hail ranging from the size of pennies to golf balls was a common occurrence. Some of the larger hail reports were near Chapman and Ayr. While wind damage was mostly in terms of fallen trees on buildings or snapped power poles, the nursing home in Blue Hill did sustain major roof damage. The front roof facade was ripped off by the wind and left the front dining and living areas exposed to the elements.

Chainsaws once again roared as cleanup began after a third, and most damaging, night of high winds across south-central Nebraska. Once again, thunderstorms began around Holdrege, then moved northeast and dissipated. As the storms dissipated, extremely high winds were reported north of Grand Island. Winds to 70 mph caused widespread damage in Howard, Merrick, Greeley, Hamilton and Nance counties. Tree damage was most common along with reports of several power outages. Further west near Holdrege, a 10' x 20' shed was torn apart by strong winds. As was the case in previous nights, temperatures soared into the 80s and 90s as the dry and warm winds blew across the region. Earlier in the evening, the thunderstorms dumped hail up to the size of quarters on parts of the area, mainly to the southwest of Minden.

Yet another night of wild weather was had across south-central Nebraska. Severe thunderstorms west of U. S. Highway 183 kicked out strong winds ahead of their passage. Wind gust to 70 mph were common, with one report of 78 mph at the NTV television studios near Axtell. The winds progressed through Grand Island and points north. Damage in Buffalo county was countywide with trees down, minor property damage and power outages. Reports of similar damage were had from Greeley, Howard, Phelps, and Dawson counties. In Dawson county, a 107 mph wind gust was recorded on a Davis weather instrument system northwest of Gothenburg. The instrument was on a 67 foot communications tower, but the wind caused the tower to collapse. The tower had sustained several 80 to 90 mph wind events prior to it falling on the 23rd.

Early morning thunderstorms developed in south-central Nebraska. Most storms produced hail just under an inch in diameter. One storm spawned a brief tornado near Dannebrog. A wind gust near 70 mph in the town of Dannebrog brought down a large tree which also took out a power line. This caused the power to be lost in the town until mid-morning.

A powerful low pressure pushed a dryline and cold front across south-central Nebraska during the late afternoon and early evening hours. Thunderstorms erupted along the initial boundary in Polk and York counties. Strong winds and hail resulted and there were numerous of building damage in the Shelby area along with widespread tree damage. Later that evening, thunderstorms fired again, this time southeast of Hastings. Several reports of dime size hail were received.As the dryline plowed across south-central Nebraska during the early evening hours, the result was a scene reminiscent of the 1930s. Winds gusts in excess of 60 mph were recorded in some areas. Freshly tilled fields and recent dry weather made for widespread areas of blowing dust, which was responsible for visibilities less than one mile at times. The highest wind gust of 78 mph was recorded near Gothenburg. Lexington and Ord both measured 60 mph. There were several auto accidents in the area which were indirectly related to the wind and poor visibility.

A quick moving severe thunderstorm produced 80 mph winds as it moved across Merrick county. Minor structural damage and widespread tree damage was reported. South of Central City, near Marquette in Hamilton county, a large storage shed was blown away on one farm. Earlier that evening, the same thunderstorm system knocked over trees, downed power lines and blew a Porta-Potty about three-quarters of a mile in northern Buffalo county.

A quick moving thunderstorm complex developed shortly after 8 am CDT and rapidly intensified as it moved east. Hail the size of quarters and wind gusts in excess of 60 mph were common. Power poles were snapped in eastern Dawson county. Snow plows were used to remove hail from Interstate 80 near Overton. A one car accident on hail covered Interstate 80, injured 3 people and may have been weather related. A shed was heavily damaged near Gibbon and numerous other reports of minor damage were noted.

A late winter storm moved through parts of south-central Nebraska on the morning of the 15th. This storm brought strong winds and snow. Most locations picked up around 4 inches of snow, but a few locations had more. Bertrand had the most with 10 inches reported and at Johnson Lake, around 6 to 8 inches were common. Winds gusted between 30 and 50 mph during the storm and caused some blowing a drifting of the snow. This produced some hazardous driving conditions and one accident along Interstate 80 shut down the roadway near Kearney for a short while. The strong winds and the wet snow caused power lines to sway dramatically. Many slapped together, blowing circuit breakers along the lines. This caused numerous power outages across the area. The near blizzard conditions also closed or delayed starting area schools and the courthouse in Buffalo county was closed during the morning hours.

The combination of freezing drizzle and freezing rain coated roads, trees and power lines with a solid layer of ice during the overnight hours of February 23rd. Untreated roads, which included most secondary highways and county roads, were literally impassable due to the ice. Sporadic, but brief, power outages were reported. Temperatures rose above 32 degrees the next morning and alleviated the ice buildup.

The second of three quick moving but powerful winter storms pounded south-central Nebraska with high winds, dangerous cold and near blizzard conditions. The storm struck in the middle of the night. Though actual snowfall was light, fresh snow already on the ground was more than enough for the high winds, which developed, to cause hazardous conditions. Visibilities dropped to near zero in white-out conditions overnight as wind gusts to 50 mph were recorded. Significant blowing and drifting snow made travel in some areas difficult to impossible at times.Though the sky cleared during the day, the wind continued to howl over 40 mph. Temperatures dropped to the single digits by midday. The combination of wind and cold produced dangerously cold wind chills to 50 below zero. Many area events scheduled for the evening of the 16th were canceled due to the combination of the wind, extreme cold and problems caused by blowing and drifting snow.

A line of severe thunderstorms belted the region on Memorial Day evening with wind gusts over 100 mph. The storms moved into the Gothenburg area around 830 p.m. Wind gusts of 97 mph and 106 mph were measured in and north of Gothenburg. Tree damage was widespread throughout western Dawson county. Many farmsteads sustained structural damage to outbuildings, such as barns, quonsets and grain bins. Numerous irrigation pivots were lost in the northern half of the county. The line of thunderstorms weakened slightly east of Lexington, but intensified again east of Loup City. Wind gusts over 80 mph were reported as the thunderstorms tore through eastern Sherman, Howard, Merrick and Nance counties. Again, trees were heavily damaged along with outbuildings and irrigation pivots. A roof was torn from a home in St. Paul. In Nance county, a communications tower was toppled as were several large cottonwood trees. Power lines were blown over causing power loss to several communities. With very dry conditions across the area, visibilities were near zero in blowing dust as the thunderstorms approached.

A series of thunderstorms moved east across south-central Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening hours. Numerous reports of wind and hail were received. In fact, Arcadia reported 3/4 inch hail three different times in a span of one hour. Tree limbs felt the most impact of wind speeds in excess of 60 mph. However, a barn was destroyed on a farm just west of Odessa. the contents in the barn sustained some damage as well. Power poles were downed in the York area.Early the next morning, lightning from a lingering thunderstorm struck the Lutheran Church in Saronville. Windows were broken and the bell tower sustained heavy damage. The church had been vacant for 10 years.