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September 18, 2015: Morning Severe Thunderstorms Drop
Large Hail Across Portions Of South Central Nebraska

Event Summary

Storm Reports

Photos

Radar

This is a NWS radar loop running from 7:50 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. CDT September 18th. The NWS Hastings coverage area is located within the orange outlined area labeled "GID".

Click on image larger version

Event Summary

Between 8-11 AM on the morning of Friday, Sep. 18, 2015, a few severe hail storms tracked across east-central portions of the NWS Hastings coverage area (Click HERE for a map), producing localized swaths of large hail ranging from quarter size all the way up to tennis ball and even baseball size (see below for some of the most “notable” hail reports). Although not the only hail-producing storms in the area, the majority of severe weather reports resulted from a pair of elevated supercell storms that nearly “followed” each other along a similar path, primarily impacting the following counties: northeastern Kearney, northern Adams, far southeastern Hall, far northwestern Clay, southern Hamilton and central York. Some areas were actually pounded by hail from both of these storms, roughly 30 to 40 minutes apart!

Despite rather cool air at the surface that had poured into the region behind a cold front, these high-based storms were able to tap into strong “elevated” instability (meaning unstable air centered thousands of feet above the ground), aided by a strong upper level disturbance tracking into the Central Plains. The fact that hail storms developed over the area was actually not a complete surprise given that the local Hazardous Weather Outlook issued by NWS Hastings early Friday morning mentioned that “a few storms could become strong enough to produce hail up to around nickel size”. However, the potential size of the largest hail stones was obviously under-estimated.

This story will be updated with any additional information that becomes available.

Storm Reports

Click on image below for more detailed information

Baseball size hail (2.75") was reported in and around Trumbull, NE.
Hen egg size hail (2") was reported 2 SE of Hansen, NE.
Hail ranging anywhere from quarter size (1") to hen egg size (2") was reported in and around Giltner, NE.
Ping pong ball size hail (1.5") was reported in and around Waco, NE.
Half dollar size hail (1.25") was reported in Heartwell and 6 S Aurora, NE.

Photos From The Area


Large hail near Trumbull, NE. Photos courtesy of Shari McDowell.		Large hail near Trumbull, NE. Photos courtesy of Scott Bieck.


Large hail south of Giltner. Photos courtesy of Bob Smith.		Large hail near Heartwell. Photo courtesy of Brynn Hopkins Gustafson.	Large hail in York. Photo courtesy of Jeremiah Fisher.


Hail near Waco. Photo courtesy of Matthew Mau.	Hail 4 NW of Hastings. Photo courtesy of Micah Schutte.	Hail 2 SE of Hansen. Photo courtesy of Ryan Pfannkuch.


Hail near Giltner. Photo courtesy of Bart Bennetzen.

This page was composed by the staff at the National Weather Service in Hastings, Nebraska.

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Dangerous Heat in the West; Coastal Flooding & High Rip Current Risk through the Weekend on the East Coast; Flash Flooding Concerns in the Southeast and Southwest

Sept. 18, 2015: Morning Thunderstorms Drop Large Hail Across Portions of South Central Nebraska

Event Summary

Storm Reports

Photos