Power Outage in Hastings, NE

A wind gust of 75 MPH was measured by the Hastings Airport ASOS. Wind gusts were estimated to be closer to 60 MPH by a NWS Employee on the far south-southeast side of Hastings. Emergency management reported power pole damage and downed power lines in the area of the intersection of 14th and Baltimore streets.

A wind gust of 75 MPH was measured by the Hastings Airport ASOS. Wind gusts were estimated to be closer to 60 MPH by a NWS Employee on the far south-southeast side of Hastings. Emergency management reported power pole damage and downed power lines in the area of the intersection of 14th and Baltimore streets.

There were several reports of hail ranging in size from golf balls to 2.5 inches in diameter all across the city of Hastings. This hail was accompanied by wind gusts exceeding 60 MPH, including a peak measured gust of 66 MPH at the Hastings Airport ASOS. Reports of damage across town included broken windows, siding damage, downed tree limbs, and power outages.

Wind gusts exceeding 60 MPH were reported all across the city of Hastings. Peak measured wind gusts included 66 MPH at the Hastings Airport ASOS and 59 MPH by a mesonet station located on the far eastern edge of Hastings. This wind was accompanied by hail as large as golf ball size to 2.5 inches in diameter. Reports of damage across town included broken windows, siding damage, downed tree limbs, and power outages.

This tornado touched down in Webster County and lifted north into Adams County. This intermittent tornado path started west of Blue Hill, with damage including some irrigation pipe strewn into a tree line, and some tree damage a few miles west of town. As the tornado moved northeast, more pivots were overturned. The maximum wind gust was estimated to be 100 MPH, based upon the snapping of power poles southeast of Ayr. Spotters saw the tornado west of Glenvil, where it upset another pivot before lifting.

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 reports of large tree limbs that had fallen onto roadways, adding to the travel issues.

Wind gusts between 60 and 65 MPH affected locations in and around Hastings, with a 62 MPH gusts recorded by the Hastings Airport ASOS at 12:58 AM CDT. Emergency management reported numerous large tree branches downed across town. One power pole was broken, causing a tree fire in the Hastings College area. A power line was knocked down over 3rd Street on the west side of town.

Wind gusts between 60 and 65 MPH affected locations in and around Hastings, with a 62 MPH gusts recorded by the Hastings Airport ASOS at 12:58 AM CDT. Emergency management reported numerous large tree branches downed across town. One power pole was broken, causing a tree fire in the Hastings College area. A power line was knocked down over 3rd Street on the west side of town.

The combination of an extended period of light freezing precipitation and frequent gusts over 50 MPH resulted in power outages across the area.

Widespread wind gusts of 60 to 65 MPH were reported in and around Hastings, with a few higher measured gusts. A wind gust of 68 MPH was measured at 1:09 AM CDT by a mesonet station located 3 miles east-southeast of Juniata, and a gust of 67 MPH was measured at 1:18 AM CDT by a mesonet station located 4 miles east-southeast of Hastings. There were numerous reports of tree limbs, at least some larger than 6 inches in diameter, downed across the area. Some trees were uprooted, including southwest of Hastings at Southern Hills Golf Course. A power line was knocked down across 12th Street in Hastings.

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. Penny size hail was also reported. There were several reports of larger tree branches downed and power outages across town. On the west side of Hastings, a large tree branch fell onto a vehicle, causing major damage. A tree uprooted near the high school in the middle of town was lying across 14th Street.

Wind gust measured by ASOS. One power pole on the east side of town was blown down, causing a power outage.

Slow moving front brought severe thunderstorms, including landspouts, and heavy rain to portions of south central Nebraska during the evening of May 2nd. A line of thunderstorms blossomed along a stationary front between 6-8PM CDT from southern Gosper County E to Adams County, then NE to Polk County. Once this activity developed, it remained nearly stationary until around 10PM CDT when an upper level disturbance arrived from the W and began to nudge convection to the E and SE. The primary hazard with the initial convection was landspout tornadoes. A total of four landspout tornadoes were observed: one in Kearney County, two in Hamilton County, and one in Polk County. Landspout tornadoes are often very weak and cause little to no damage. These landspouts generally fall into that category, but two of them did cause at least minor damage. Most notable was the landspout that occurred near Hwy 14 just S of Aurora. Not only was it very photogenic, but it also caused damage to a storage building and downed a power line. Other severe reports were limited to severe wind gust in Furnas County, and a large hail report in Kearney County. By late evening and into the overnight, the main threat turned to flash flooding due to the stationary/nearly-stationary nature of the thunderstorms. The heaviest rainfall amounts ranged from 3 to 6 inches and flash flooding was reported in Kearney, Adams, and Hamilton Counties. Impacts ranged from flooded streets, underpasses, and rural roads, to water in some basements in Aurora. Thunderstorms weakened considerably by midnight and lingering rain showers ended by dawn on the morning of the 3rd.||The landspout tornadoes developed within a zone of favorable juxtaposition of steep low level lapse rates, moderate low level instability, weak deep layer shear, and high ambient surface vorticity associated with the stalled surface boundary. Heavy rainfall was supported by aforementioned extremely slow storm motions, as well as seasonably high deep layer moisture.

Hail up to the size of golf balls and damaging winds occurred on this Thursday night. Just after 9 PM CST, scattered, small thunderstorms began developing between Elwood and Minden. The storms increased in size and combined into an east-west oriented multi-cell line that was stationary across Gosper, Phelps, and Kearney counties. This line remained stationary through 1 AM CST Friday. However, between midnight and 1 AM, the MCS began to evolve. A storm over Kearney county began moving eastward and became dominant. As this storm moved into Adams county after 1 AM CST, new storms formed along the surging outflow boundary/cold pool from Red Cloud to Franklin to Alma. A transition to a comma-shaped echo configuration had occurred. This finally brought an end to the storms over Gosper, Phelps, and Kearney counties. The newly formed squall line increased in size between 2 and 430 AM CST, as it moved across the rest of south central Nebraska, south of Interstate 80. The initial east-west line of storms produced golf ball size hail several miles south of Elwood, and downburst winds knocked down power lines across highway 23 between Loomis and Holdrege. Outflow winds of 58 mph were also measured near Oxford. Later in the night, the squall line produced severe winds in a couple spots. A large tree limb was broken in Hastings, and winds were clocked at 60 mph in Harvard. There were not many rain gauge observations available where the heaviest rain fell, but the highest amount reported was 3.46 inches, 11 mi south of Elwood.||Throughout the day, a slow-moving cold front became stationary across northern Nebraska, from Scottsbluff to Sioux City, IA. These storms formed south of the front, where just prior to convection initiation, temperatures were in the upper 70s, and dewpoints were in the lower 70s. With the mid-level lapse rate around 7.5 C/km, MUCAPE was near 3000 J/kg. Effective deep layer shear was 25-30 kt. In the upper-levels, the flow was from the west-southwest across most of nation, with a weak (and weakening) trough over the northern Rockies. Wind speeds were weak over the central Plains with a low-amplitude ridge from near Denver to Omaha.

During a June that featured a below-average quantity of severe weather within South Central Nebraska, this late Friday afternoon-night episode ended up being the most widespread round of the month. The majority of severe storms targeted areas west of the Highway 281 corridor, mainly producing damaging winds and locally heavy rainfall/flooding, along with a few reports of large hail. Some of the more noteworthy wind and/or wind damage reports included: a measured 75 MPH gust in the Loomis area with power lines and trees down, measured gusts of 70 MPH near Norman and 68 MPH near Kearney, estimated 70 MPH winds in Beaver City and estimated 60 MPH winds in Lexington with 8-10 inch diameter tree limbs down. While most wind damage occurred between 7-9 p.m. CDT in close proximity to actual severe storms, strong to marginally-severe outflow winds managed to surge 20+ miles out ahead of the primary precipitation cores around sunset. This outflow yielded measured gusts around 50 MPH at the Grand Island and Hastings airports and even toppled a 10-inch diameter tree on the eastern fringe of Hastings. Later in the night, a completely separate, southward-rushing storm complex entered northeastern portions of the local area (counties mainly east of Highway 281 and along/north of Interstate 80) in a weakening state, but still produced northerly outflow of 50+ MPH, including 55 MPH measured at the York airport shortly after 1 a.m. CDT. There were fewer reports of large hail during this event, but stones up to golf ball size were confirmed near Ashton early in the evening, and also near Ord closer to sunset (quarter to ping pong ball size in Ord itself). ||Turning to hydrology issues, although they were fairly isolated/localized in nature, there were three bulls eyes of heavy, radar-estimated rainfall of at least 1.50-3.00 that fell in a short time and produced verified flooding. Going in chronological order, the first pocket of heavy rain targeted east-central Sherman County as a nearly-stationary storm parked itself overhead for roughly 2.5 hours between 4:30-7:00 p.m. CDT. This resulted in flooding of Deer Creek, which covered a portion of at least one rural road between Rockville and Ashton for a time. Around the time rain started easing up over Sherman County, additional pockets of short-fused heavy rain focused over portions of central Dawson and west-central Phelps counties mainly between 6:30-8:30 p.m. CDT, resulting in several county road closures in the Cozad/Lexington and Bertrand/Loomis areas. Although there were almost no official gauge totals from the very-heaviest rain zones, Lexington airport tallied 2.56. Outside of these three aforementioned pockets of very heavy rain, the majority of South Central Nebraska received no more than 0.50-1.00 during this event, and hardly even a drop within most central counties along the Highway 281 corridor.||Taking a closer look at timing, the first, isolated storms of the day flared up during the peak heating hours of 3-6 p.m. CDT, primarily within Sherman and Dawson counties. Then, during the ensuing four hours through 10 p.m. CDT, storm coverage greatly increased within the western half of South Central Nebraska, both as a result of new development along local outflow boundaries and also from additional storms expanding northeastward into the area out of southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas. After 10 p.m. CDT, the onset of diurnal cooling resulted in a steady weakening/dissipation of the main round of afternoon/evening convection. However, primarily between 12-2 a.m. CDT on the 18th, a completely separate southward-tracking storm complex entered mainly northeastern portions of South Central Nebraska in a steadily-weakening state. Through the remainder of the night, scattered weak thunderstorms lingered over eastern portions of the area (especially within the Highway 81 counties), but by sunrise on the 18th nearly all of South Central Nebraska was rain-free. This was a somewhat sneaky severe weather event considering that mid-upper level forcing and deep-layer wind shear were quite weak by mid-June standards (no more than 15-20 knots), initially limiting the overall magnitude/coverage of severe storms. However, this lack of forcing/shear was clearly compensated for by a potent level of instability/CAPE, climbing to at least 3000-4000 J/kg during the afternoon. These lofty instability values were not surprising considering that this was one of the overall-hottest, most humid days of summer 2016 within South Central Nebraska as temperatures generally topped out 96-100 F in the presence of dewpoints in the mid-60s to low-70s. Because of this high instability/low shear setup, initially isolated multicell convection quickly became outflow-dominant, subsequently igniting increasingly-widespread storm development along a plethora of merging outflow boundaries. In the mid-upper levels, the weak flow and lack of large-scale forcing over the Central Plains was due to a broad ridge axis stretched from northern Mexico all the way into southeast Canada. At the surface, there were no pronounced boundaries of note over the local area, although a somewhat subtle inverted trough extended across Nebraska from southwest-to-northeast.

Multiple thunderstorms formed along and southeast of a line from Red Cloud to York on this Sunday afternoon. However, most of the severe weather was produced by a single supercell. This was the first and most intense storm of the day and it formed over Webster county around 2:30 p.m. CDT. This storm took full advantage of an extremely favorable environment, quickly becoming severe and producing at least one brief, weak tornado just southwest of Glenvil. The storm continued northeast producing several more tornadoes, two of which resulted in a maximum damage rating of EF-3. One of these tornadoes occurred over Clay and Fillmore counties and the other subsequently occurred over Fillmore and Seward counties. The first of these EF-3 tornadoes was on the ground for nearly 22 miles. Damage surveys, photos and video confirmed that this storm produced at least 6 other tornadoes, 3 rated EF-0, 2 rated EF-1 and 1 rated EF-2. One of the EF-1 tornadoes was anticyclonic and touched down just north of Fairmont. To the left of these tornadoes, severe hail was common. The largest hail observed was the size of tennis balls in Glenvil. Large swaths of damaging winds, from the rear flank downdraft, accompanied the tornadoes to their south and southeast. Tornado and wind damage was extensive to trees, power poles, farm buildings including grain bins, and a few homes. Over 200 irrigation pivots were overturned and/or twisted. Multiple farmsteads also endured damage, including the loss of a new machine shed. By 5:30 p.m., this storm had moved into eastern Nebraska. Other storms developed in its wake, but produced no severe weather. ||A very long surface front extended from New England, through the Ohio Valley, across the Central Plains and into the Desert Southwest. Portions of this front were stationary while others were being modulated by several waves of low pressure. The front lifted northward to the Kansas-Nebraska border by daybreak. One low ejected out of Colorado and moved east along the front through northern Kansas during the day. This supercell formed just northeast of this low on the immediate cool side of the front. The upper-level flow featured an amplified western trough and eastern ridge. A closed low was at the base of the trough over the Four Corners region. These storms initiated with the aid of a shortwave trough that ejected into the Central Plains ahead of this low. A strong 100 knot jet streak was at the base of the trough at 300 mb, placing the Central Plains in the favorable left front quadrant. An expansive stratus cloud deck, on the cool side of the front, resulted in a substantial temperature gradient across the front, with afternoon temperatures in the 40s and 50s across much of Nebraska to the mid 80s and low 90s over northern Kansas. This resulted in a tight instability gradient with MLCAPE of 2000 J/kg right along the front. Winds were strong throughout the column. The ejecting low pressure center, combined with the front, resulted in significantly backed winds, enhancing low-level shear. 0-1 km SRH was roughly 300 m2/s2, with 0-3 km SRH 400-600 m2/s2. The environment was very favorable for severe storms and tornadoes.

The second official blizzard of the season in South Central Nebraska pounded much of the southeast half of the area on this Sunday, dropping generally 3-9 inches of snow whipped by strong sustained north-northwest winds of 25-35 MPH that frequently gusted over 40 MPH. The vast majority of snow focused east of a line from near Fullerton-Hastings-Franklin, with the heart of the worst blizzard conditions centered through Hamilton, York, Clay, Fillmore, Nuckolls and Thayer counties. Interstate 80 was closed for several hours from Grand Island to Lincoln. In sharp contrast, and thanks to an extremely sharp divide in snow bands, most locations west of the Fullerton-Hastings-Franklin line hardly observed any snow at all. Snow first started falling in southwest-to-northeast bands around midnight, after transitioning from a rain/sleet mix that fell on the evening of the 9th. By sunrise, 1-3 inches had fallen across much of the affected area, with higher amounts to around 5 inches reported near Superior. Blizzard conditions with visibility of around 1/4 mile or less were present from the start in many areas, as Hastings airport measured one of the highest known wind gusts of the event at 54 MPH around 5 AM CDT. By the mid-morning hours, conditions had further deteriorated as a particularly intense snow band roughly 20 miles wide persisted along an axis from York to Nuckolls counties. By the early-mid afternoon hours, banding was not quite as intense, but a broad area of light to moderate snow continued. During the late afternoon and evening hours, falling snow tapered off to flurries and eventually ended from west to east. However, at least minor blowing snow issues continued well into the night as sustained winds slowly eased below 20 MPH. ||Per NWS cooperative observers, a few of the highest storm-total snow amounts included 9 near Shickley, 8.1 near Superior, 8 at Geneva and 6 in or near Aurora, Bruning and Hubbell. A bit farther west, both Hastings and Grand Island set or tied daily snowfall records for March 10th with 5.3 and 3.5, respectively. As evidence of the sharp west edge of the snowfall area, places such as Kearney airport and Minden only reported 0.2 and a non-measurable trace, respectively. On the synoptic scale aloft, this event was powered by the passage of a highly amplified and slightly positively tilted mid-upper trough that slowly lumbered across the Central United States. At 700 millibars, the heaviest snow bands concentrated under a pronounced deformation zone on the northwest periphery of a closed low/vort max that tracked from southwest Kansas on the evening of the 9th to southern Iowa by late evening on the 10th. At mid-afternoon on the 10th, surface maps confirmed that strong north winds and blizzard conditions were promoted by a tight pressure gradient between a 1004 millibar low over north central Missouri and a 1022 millibar ridge extending southward into northwest Nebraska. Enhancing the March misery across the local area were temperatures averaging in the low-mid 20s, yielding wind chill values generally 4-12 degrees above zero.

Multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms pounded parts of the 24-county area on this Saturday, resulting in numerous reports of large hail and damaging winds along with four brief EF0 tornadoes. However, considering that the entire area spent the day under its only High Risk convective outlook of the spring from the Storm Prediction Center, the situation could have been worse. No injuries were reported in South Central Nebraska, and all significant, long-track tornadoes in the region remained to the south across central and southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma. Locally, most severe weather targeted counties between Interstate 80 and the Kansas border. The first three brief tornadoes occurred between 2-3 PM CDT in Nuckolls and Thayer Counties, as a rain-wrapped supercell tracked out of northern Kansas. One of these tornadoes struck a farm just north of Alexandria, where a grain bin was toppled and a roof torn off a shed. A few hours later, the final and most-photographed tornado of the day touched down shortly after 6 PM CDT in Harlan County northeast of Oxford and crossed Highway 6, destroying a grain bin along the way. ||During this prolonged event, severe thunderstorms affected parts of the area for roughly 13 hours, mainly between 1030 AM and 1130 PM CDT. The first round of severe weather focused across northern portions of the area during the late morning as an elevated supercell tracked across parts of Sherman, Valley and Greeley Counties. This storm was a prolific hail producer, with hail of at least 2 inches in diameter causing considerable damage to homes and vehicles, especially north and west of Spalding. As these early storms exited to the northeast, the focus shifted south to near the Kansas border, as the next cluster of more-surface-based severe storms with embedded tornadic circulations lifted through primarily Nuckolls, Thayer and Fillmore Counties between 1-4 PM CDT. After a brief lull, a few more supercells fired up farther west around 5 PM CDT, with one of these storms producing the tornado near Oxford before weakening as it tracked northeast toward Kearney. Yet again, a brief lull ensued, before numerous severe thunderstorms flared up mainly south of Interstate 80 during the 830-1130 PM CDT time frame. Although these storms were not tornadic, multiple hail and wind reports included baseball size hail near Glenvil, golf ball size hail near Edison and McCool Junction and estimated 70 MPH winds and toppled irrigation center pivots near Campbell and east of Clay Center. Finally, between 1130 PM and 2 AM CDT, the remaining storms gradually weakened and exited the area to the east. ||Although significant flooding was not an issue, most areas southeast of a line from Osceola to Franklin measured at least 1-2 inches of rain, with 2-3 inch amounts most concentrated within Nuckolls, Thayer and Fillmore Counties, including a 3.70-inch total just west of Tobias along the Fillmore and Saline County line. ||This long-lasting severe weather outbreak was driven by a classic synoptic setup, as a powerful mid-upper level trough approached the Central Plains from the Four Corners region, featuring a 300 millibar jet streak in excess of 110 knots. At the surface, low pressure deepened over the course of the day, registering around 992 millibars by early evening over northwest Kansas. A well-defined warm front extended east from this low across South Central Nebraska, as a sharpening dryline took shape along a line from southwest Nebraska to far western Oklahoma. With a strengthening and veering wind profile with height, shear parameters were quite supportive of significant severe weather. Around the time of the late afternoon tornado near Oxford, mesoscale severe weather parameters included around 1500 J/Kg mixed layer CAPE, 60-70 knots of deep layer vertical wind shear and 30-40 knots of surface-to-1 kilometer low level vertical shear. In addition, surface-to-1 kilometer storm relative helicity increased into at least the 300-500 m2/s2 range during the late afternoon and evening hours, promoting a volatile environment for potentially strong, long-track tornadoes. Fortunately for South Central Nebraska, the sheer number of storms along with resultant storm-scale interference likely mitigated what could have been a more significant tornado event. ||On a regional and even national level, this was one of the most anticipated and well-advertised Central Plains tornado outbreaks ever. Although the majority of South Central Nebraska was not in a High Risk outlook from the Storm Prediction Center until the early morning hours of the 14th, parts of Kansas and Oklahoma were placed under a High Risk early on the 13th, marking the first time SPC ever issued a High Risk forecast so far in advance.

Although expectations were not high for significant severe weather in South Central Nebraska on this late Sunday afternoon and early evening, a small but intense cluster of severe storms morphed into a bow echo, producing a narrow, concentrated zone of wind damage across several southeast counties. The most intense corridor of winds estimated in the 60-70 MPH range first developed just south of Hastings around 520 PM CDT. During the next 90 minutes, damaging winds accelerated southeast through several communities including Fairfield, Deweese, Deshler, Hebron and Gilead, before exiting the area into southeast Nebraska and northeast Kansas by 730 PM CDT. Most of the multiple reports of damage involved trees and power lines, including a large tree that crushed the front end of a sport utility vehicle at Fairfield in Clay County. In addition to the widespread wind damage, this storm complex dumped torrential rainfall of at least 1-2 inches in a short time. The highest-known gauge readings of 3.18 to 3.50 inches occurred just southwest of Hastings, during the early, slower-moving stages of the complex. ||This severe-storm complex gradually evolved from a cluster of fairly disorganized multicellular storms that blossomed during the early to mid-afternoon hours near the Interstate 80 corridor between Dawson and Hamilton Counties. With time, these storms started propagating southeast along a common outflow, merging with vigorous new storm development over Adams County between 4 and 5 PM CDT. Once this occurred, a well-established cold pool took shape, and the storm cluster accelerated southeast, assuming the shape of a small bow echo in Thayer County. These severe storms were primarily ignited by the presence of a very moist and unstable airmass, characterized by surface dewpoints in the low-mid 70s and surface-based CAPE values of 4000-5000 J/kg. Synoptic-scale forcing was very minimal, with only a subtle disturbance passing through the region in quasi-zonal flow aloft. Deep-layer vertical wind shear was quite weak, only 20-30 knots at best, due to the upper air pattern featuring ridging across the southern two-thirds of the nation. The high levels of low-level moisture were focused by light easterly surface flow to the north of a somewhat diffuse surface front stretched across northern Kansas into northwest Missouri.

Following a five day break from active weather, the mid-evening on this Sunday featured a few, isolated strong to severe thunderstorms across southeast portions of South Central Nebraska, mainly affecting only six counties. Both large hail and damaging winds were reported, including golf ball size in southern Adams County, and estimated 80 MPH winds at Chester in Thayer County. The initial vigorous severe storm development took place earlier in the evening in north central Kansas, with a few storms then spreading north across the Nebraska border mainly between 830 and 930 PM CDT before weakening or moving out of the area. ||In the low levels, these storms were focused near a rather well-defined, northward-lifting warm front. Aloft, broad southwesterly flow dominated the Central Plains, to the east of a powerful, closed mid-level low pressure system centered over the Intermountain West. Early in the evening, the surface warm front stretched from west-east along a line from far northwest Kansas to southeast Nebraska, separating an expansive area of low clouds to the north across most of South Central Nebraska, from considerable sunshine and destabilization in counties along the Kansas border. Around the time storms moved into southern Nebraska, the mesoscale environment featured around 2500 J/kg mixed layer CAPE, along with around 50 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear.

After a rather quiet start to the severe weather season in South Central Nebraska, things changed in a hurry during the early to mid afternoon hours on this Wednesday as a line of severe thunderstorms marched from southwest to northeast across much of the area, but primarily impacting counties along and east of Highway 281. Although widespread straight line wind damage was the main story, there were also three confirmed tornadoes embedded within the line, consisting of an EF0 in extreme southern Adams County, an EF1 several miles north of Hampton in Hamilton County, and another EF1 that actually touched down on the edge of Osceola in Polk County. These tornadoes were relatively short-track, but did cause some damage. In terms of straight line wind damage, one of the many reports included 22 vehicles with rear or side windows blown out by flying gravel at Sandy Creek School south of Clay Center. There were only a handful of hail reports, none of which were larger than nickels. No injuries were reported from these storms. ||The primary driving force for severe weather was a powerful, negatively tilted mid and upper level low pressure system centered over Colorado. At the surface, a fairly well-defined quasi-stationary front extended across the region from southeast Colorado to east-central Nebraska, with a few areas of low pressure along it. This surface front marked a sharp division in instability, with mid-day mixed-layer CAPE values ranging from negligible across western portions of South Central Nebraska, to between 1500-2500 J/kg in eastern counties. Deep layer vertical wind shear on the order of 30-50 knots was also present, making the environment conducive to fairly widespread severe storm development.||Focusing on storm mode and timing, the nearly solid line of severe storms lifted northeast across South Central Nebraska in a generally west-northwest to east-southeast orientation, first crossing into the state out of north central Kansas around 1 PM CDT, and eventually exiting the Polk and Nance County areas around 4 PM CDT. While strong to severe wind gusts of 50-70 MPH were common across several counties, the brief tornadoes were likely a result of the line of storms encountering enhanced low level shear and easterly low-level winds along and north of the quasi-stationary front.

Dying thunderstorms produced wind gusts up to 58 mph in Hastings. Several branches fell on power lines resulting in sporadic power outages around town. The wind was associated with a "Heat Burst". At the same time, the temperature rose to 91 degrees at the Hastings Airport.

A powerful upper level low pressure system plowing into an unstable airmass triggered widespread severe weather across south-central Nebraska during the late afternoon and evening hours. As many as nine tornadoes were confirmed and many reports of hail were received.The tornado damage was confined to an area located north and east of Grand Island, which included Merrick, Nance, Polk, Greeley, and Hamilton counties. The tornadoes got going west of Marquette. One twister set down in Hamilton county and crossed the Platte River southeast of Chapman. Damage to outbuildings was of most significance. Other tornadoes were reported in the Marquette area, with one tornado on the ground for 12 miles from south of Marquette to southeast of Hordville. This tornado was rated an F1 and produced minor structural damage to buildings and grain bins at several farms. Power lines were lost and several trees were blown over. Numerous center pivot irrigation systems were damaged.Just before 6 pm CDT, the most damaging tornado of the day developed near the Polk and Hamilton county line, and proceeded northeast across western Polk county, leaving a path of destruction in its wake. Storm chaser reports indicated this tornado frequently became multi-vortex in nature and produced a wide swath of damage. Three miles north of Polk, a home was completely ripped from its foundation and blown into some nearby trees. The tornado was rated an F3 at this point. Along its 18 mile path, the tornado damaged over 20 center pivots, and nearly every farmstead in the path of the tornado sustained damage to the home, outbuildings, machinery or grain bins. This tornado lifted southwest of Silver Creek.Just prior to the F3 tornado in Polk county, an F2 tornado was ripping up a farmstead in northern Merrick county. This tornado was responsible for tearing the roof from a home, destroying two large metal outbuildings and damage to a half-dozen vehicles. The tornado moved north and destroyed a barn on the Nance and Merrick county line, but narrowly missed the home. Window and siding damage was noted at the home.Later that evening, one final tornado was reported. This tornado moved from south of Silver Creek to northeast of Silver Creek just before sunset. The tornado clipped the southeast side of town, resulting in damage to the post office, several cars, trees, and 13 residences in town. Fortunately, most of the damage was minor.

A line of thunderstorms produced widespread high winds, some hail, and even two tornadoes during the evening of the 20th. One twister touched down in an open field south of Roseland in Adams county. No damage was reported. The other tornado was one mile west of Superior, and managed to damage the roof of an apartment building. Power lines were damaged as well. Straight line wind damage was reported in Fillmore county north of Ohiowa.