Heat and Fire Weather Concerns in the West; Excessive Rainfall Possible in the South-Central U.S.

Heat will build over the Intermountain West and the Southwest the next couple of days. Lightning from dry thunderstorms can create new fire starts and combined with gusty winds may cause a fire to rapidly grow in Oregon and northern California. Flash flooding will be possible in New Mexico and west Texas today, as well as parts of the southern and central Plains due to slow moving thunderstorms. Read More >

Overview:

In what had been a quieter-than-average severe thunderstorm season within the 30-county NWS Hastings coverage area, the event on the evening of Tuesday, June 13th was likely the most significant/widespread of the year-to-date. Primarily between 6 PM-11 PM, a rash of severe storms consisting of both semi-discrete supercells and also linear clusters yielded dozens of large hail and damaging wind reports, primarily within a 30-50 mile wide corridor centered roughly along a line from Phillips/Smith counties in the southwest, then northeast through the Red Cloud, Hastings/Grand Island, Clay Center, Aurora and Osceola areas.

Some hail was quite large, highlighted by stones up to baseball size reported just west-southwest of Hastings (including in the Juniata and Holstein areas) and up to tennis ball size within Grand Island. Although stones this large were the exception overall, many affected areas saw at least quarter to ping pong ball size hail. As for damaging straight-line winds, the overall-worst impacts focused within counties east of the Highway 281 corridor. In west-central Polk County, a home weather station clocked an unofficial gust of 92 MPH, with gusts of at least 70 MPH also reported in the Clay Center and Bradshaw areas. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of mainly minor damage to trees and outbuildings across the area, including in the communities of Osceola, Shelby and Hordville, among others. Fortunately, there have no official confirmations of tornadoes (as of this writing), although storm chasers reported gustnado activity along the leading edge of storm outflow.

Rainfall-wise, most areas affected by these storms reported totals between 0.50-2.00" from the evening of the 13th into the early morning of the 14th. However, there were some locally-higher exceptions, including in the Loup City area, and also near the intersection of Webster, Franklin, and Smith counties, where unofficial reports of up to around 4" occurred. Fortunately, any flooding concerns were relatively minor and brief.

In the mid-upper levels of the atmosphere, this event was driven by a shortwave trough swinging east through the Central Plains, to the southeast of its "parent" closed low pressure system centered over Montana. At the surface, storms developed in explosive fashion as a dryline pushing in from the west encountered a very warm/unstable airmass characterized by afternoon high temperatures well into the 90s and dewpoints in the 60s.
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Please note: Information in this story is considered preliminary and subject to change until publication in NOAA Storm Data. Click here to search official reports in the NCEI Storm Events Database (new storm reports do not appear here for at least 2-3 months from when they occur)

NWS Hastings radar loop from 5:30 p.m. CDT on June 13th through 7:00 a.m. CDT on June 14th. The NWS Hastings coverage area is outlined in orange and labled "GID".

Storm Reports
Hail Photos
Wind & Other Photos

Storm Reports:

Below is a short list of the most significant storm reports received by NWS Hastings:

Hail at least tennis ball size (2.5"): Grand Island - south and west of Hastings (near Adams Central HS) - 2 miles SSE of Juniata
Golf ball size (1.75"): Agra, KS
Ping Pong ball size (1.5"): Red Cloud - Lawrence - 8 miles NNE of Kensington, KS
Measured 92 MPH wind gust by a mesonet site 7 miles east of Clarks
Measured 72 MPH wind gust by a mesonet site 3 miles west of Bradshaw

Click the image below for more detailed information regarding severe weather reports from the area.

Hail Photos:


Grand Island Photo by Daniel Hromas.	Grand Island Photo by Annette Lavender.	2 SW Hastings Photo by Nicki Butler	Hastings Photo by Amber Hoffman.


North of Grand Island Photo by Jeanne Mettinbrink.	North Grand Island on Chapman Rd Photo by Terry Klein.	2 SSE Juniata Photo by Susie Stahl.	Agra, KS Photo by Ashlyn Atchison.


Roseland Photo by Misty Tilley.	4 SW Adams Central HS Photo by Amanda Lear Duden	Hastings Photo by Sara Schnase Stroman.	Hastings - Idlewild neighborhood Photo by Kendra Weichman.


Southern Grand Island Photo by Rod Fay.	Southwest Grand Island Photo by Mark Vanosdall.	Hastings Photo by Brandon Modlin.	Red Cloud Photo by Katie Ord.

Wind & Other Photos:


Tree damage in Genoa. Photo by Kiara Ziemba.	Looking from Bertrand Photo by Shawn Erickson.


Tree damage in Osceola. Photo by Steve Kumpf.	Shed damage in Shelby. Photo by Grant Gabel.	Shelby Photo by Jesse Risley.	Near Shelby Photo by Melanie McKinney.


Central Nebraska Photos by Taylor Montgomery.		Grand Island Photo by Terri Marousek.	Near Glenvil. Photo by Amanda Albers.


Near Kearney. Photos by Grady Dixon.		York Photo by Jason Cooley.	Rainbow near Pauline. Photo by Jesse Wirtes.


York Photo by Quincy Vagell.	Near York. Photo by CAJE Photography.	Near York. Photo by Jeff Frame.	SW of Hastings. Photo by Brandon Sullivan.

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Heat and Fire Weather Concerns in the West; Excessive Rainfall Possible in the South-Central U.S.

June 13th, 2017: Severe Storms Strike the Heart of the Area, Very Large Hail In Grand Island/Hastings