Power Outage in Superior, NE

At approximately 12:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday the 23rd, a transformer malfunction ignited a wildfire near the intersection of Road D and Road 3100...about 1 mile east of Bostwick. Pushed by strong southerly winds gusting to at least 50 MPH, this fire raced north along Road 3100 and across Highway 136, making a slight turn to the north-northwest between Roads J and K. This swiftly moving fire was finally halted approximately six miles west of Nelson, near the intersection of PQ Road and Road 3000. Along the way, this fire scorched roughly 11,000 acres of crop and pasture land, along a swath around 12 miles long and up to two miles wide. Fortunately, no injuries were reported, but one rural home and six outbuildings were destroyed. The homeowner had only 10 minutes of notice before the inferno reached his property, but was able to move a few farm implements out of its way in time. However, in addition to the loss of his home and a few outbuildings, around 20 antique cars and a semi-truck were also destroyed. As for utility infrastructure, South Central Public Power District reported the loss of around 30 utility poles along with two electrical transmission buildings. Agriculture-wise, numerous hay bales and some unharvested crops also went up in flames. Smoke from the fire caused widespread visibility restrictions in the area, and Highway 136 was closed for a period of time. In all, approximately 20 area fire departments (and 150-200 firefighters) were involved in the response, mainly from Nuckolls, Clay, Thayer and Webster counties (along with a few from Jewell County Kansas). At least ten area farmers assisted with fire suppression by cultivating farm ground ahead of the fire. As a testament to the aggressive nature of this fire's spread, one responder noted that flames outpaced them while they were driving alongside them at 45 MPH. The fire was finally declared to be 100 percent contained with no active hot spots around 8:30 a.m. CDT on Monday the 24th.

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.

Wind gusts near 60 MPH resulted in a downed transmission line. This caused power outages in the area, and Road 2600 between Roads J and L was closed due to the line being over the road.

Wind gusts were estimated to around 75 MPH. Tree limbs of 6 to 10 inches in diameter were downed, and several streets closed due to trees across them. Power was out for much of the town for several hours. A couple vehicles were damaged by falling tree limbs. A 40 foot section of a roof was blown off of the local lumberyard and an awning was damaged at another business. At least 9 irrigation pivots were damaged south of town. Most of the damage focused between 8th Street and the Republican River.

This tornado touched down approximately 8 miles northwest of Superior and took a curved path to the southwest before lifting approximately 5 miles northwest of Superior. This tornado remained in rural areas, damaging trees, fence line and 4 power poles along its path. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 100 MPH.

This tornado touched down between Bostwick and Superior, and was rated an EF1 with an estimated peak wind speed of 100 MPH. Trees were damaged, pivots were overturned and power poles were snapped. A home northwest of Superior sustained porch damage.

This tornado touched down between Bostwick and Superior, and was rated an EF1 with an estimated peak wind speed of 100 MPH. Trees were damaged, pivots were overturned and power poles were snapped. A home northwest of Superior sustained porch damage.

The most significant damage was confined to the city limits of Superior. There was widespread tree damage, along with a warehouse building and several small buildings being destroyed and a number of snapped power poles. On the southeast edge of town, railroad cars were overturned.

A brief tornado was reported by the local power company. A couple of power poles were snapped.

Severe thunderstorms brought large hail and damaging winds to a few counties in south central Nebraska during the evening of May 8. A cluster of thunderstorms, which included supercells, developed along and just north of the state line between 5-6pm CDT and gradually shifted E through the evening. The strongest activity affected Webster, Nuckolls, and Thayer Counties where large hail and damaging winds were reported. Hail ranged in size from quarter (1.00���) to golf ball size (1.75���), and wind gusts peaked near 70 MPH. The greatest impacts were near Chester in Thayer County where severe wind gusts caused widespread tree damage, power outages, and overturned pivots. Severe thunderstorms pushed east of the area by 9PM CDT, but non-severe thunderstorms continued until almost midnight.

Although just one lone strong-to-severe thunderstorm tracked across far southern portions of South Central Nebraska on this Tuesday evening, it wreaked havoc on one particular community: Superior in Nuckolls County. Estimated 75 MPH winds struck primarily southern portions of town around 10 p.m. CDT, causing extensive damage to trees and power lines and ripping a 40-foot section of roof from a lumberyard building, among other damages. Although severe wind was the main story in Superior, hail up to golf ball size also fell. While the immediate Superior area bore the brunt of storm headlines, hail ranging from half dollar to ping pong ball size fell a bit farther west in the Riverton and Inavale areas, with some wind damage also reported near Inavale. ||This storm initially flared up around 7:30 p.m. CDT over northern Harlan County and quickly exhibited severe weather potential per radar data, although no ground-truth reports were received early in its life cycle. Between 8-10 p.m. CDT, it tracked east-southeast through portions of Franklin, Webster and Nuckolls counties, fluctuating in intensity and occasionally showing supercell characteristics. Around 10 p.m. CDT it slammed into Superior, with radar data suggesting evidence of a collapsing core and the resultant surge of damaging winds. Shortly thereafter, it slipped south of the state line into Kansas and weakened below severe thresholds within 30 minutes.||In the mid-upper levels, South Central Nebraska was under a pronounced northwesterly flow regime, situated northeast of a large-scale ridge centered over the Desert Southwest. Although forcing aloft was fairly nebulous, this severe storm developed in the vicinity of a warm front taking shape near the Nebraska-Kansas border, marked in part by surface dewpoints gradually increasing into the upper 50-lower 60s F range over the course of the evening. This increasing low level moisture, in combination with afternoon temperatures climbing well into the 90s, contributed to a mesoscale environment fairly supportive of severe weather, featuring 1000-2000 J/kg mixed-CAPE and effective deep layer wind shear around 40 knots.

Although severe storms affected only small portions of the southeast quadrant of the local area (namely Nuckolls County), this Sunday afternoon featured the first documented tornado of 2016 within South Central Nebraska, along with a smattering of hail reports up to golf ball size. The EF1-rated tornado was the story of the day locally, as it traced nearly a three mile, curved path from approximately eight miles to five miles northwest of Superior shortly after 6 p.m. CDT. Along the way, it damaged trees, fence line and power poles. It was also highly visible (some folks saw it from nearly 20 miles away) and was even captured live by a TV station webcam in Superior. Nearly an hour later, another tornado narrowly missed southern Thayer County, but remained slightly south of the state line in Republic County Kansas. As for hail, ground-truth reports were fairly limited, but a separate storm (not the same one that produced the tornado) dropped ping pong ball to golf ball stones from Superior to at least three miles east of Superior. Earlier on, the initial severe storm development of the afternoon yielded ping pong ball size hail south of Red Cloud. ||Within the local South Central Nebraska area, this event consisted of a fairly localized cluster of multicell and a few supercell storms, the majority of which affected Nuckolls, Webster Thayer and Fillmore counties between 5:00-7:30 p.m. CDT before exiting into southeast Nebraska. As mentioned, Nuckolls County bore the brunt of severe weather, with one severe storm lifting north out of Jewell County Kansas, and another (the tornado-producer) intensifying as it drifted east from Webster County. North of this primary zone of strong to severe convection, a few strong storms also flared up within the northeast quadrant of South Central Nebraska, including one that dropped small hail in eastern Nance County around 7:30 p.m. CDT. In the mid-upper levels, the primary instigator for severe weather was a strong, closed low tracking eastward along the Nebraska-South Dakota border and a negatively-tilted shortwave trough to its east-southeast kicking out across the Central Plains. At mid-afternoon, the primary surface low of around 996 millibars was centered in central South Dakota, while a secondary, slightly weaker low developed in west central Kansas. These two lows were connected by a rather classic, north-south oriented dryline/cold front combination. The South Central Nebraska severe storms erupted along the leading dryline, in an environment characterized by surface temperatures in the mid-70s F, dewpoints in the mid-upper 50s and south-southeast winds of 15-20 MPH with higher gusts. The mesoscale environment was certainly supportive of supercell storms, featuring up to 2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and deep-layer wind shear of 40-50 knots. Although tornado parameters were not overly-high, a steady increase in low-level (0-1 kilometer) wind shear to around 20 knots was noted by late afternoon.

The first winter storm of the season clipped a small section of south-central Nebraska. The storm dumped 4 to 7 inches of snow across Nuckolls and Thayer counties, with the heaviest swath along U.S. Highway 136 in the southern sections of both counties. Though the snowfall itself ended relatively quickly, the winds gusted to 40 mph behind the storm, causing considerable blowing and drifting. Schools throughout the area canceled classes. Power was lost briefly in some areas.

Thunderstorms in the late evening developed in central Nebraska. These storms brought hail and gusty winds to the Loup River valley. No damage was reported. Later in the night, thunderstorms moved northeast from northern Kansas into south-central Nebraska. These storms did produce 3 tornadoes. Two were only on the ground for a few moments, but the twister in Nuckolls county was on the ground for 12 miles. Most damage was to outbuildings, irrigation piping, trees and power poles. A house on the east side of Hebron was damaged. A man in the house sustained a few cuts from broken glass as he left the damaged home.