Alert archive / Nebraska / Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in 2002

Severe Thunderstorm Warning 45, NWS Hastings, NE

May 15, 2002Furnas County, Nebraska

NWS Hastings, NE issued this severe thunderstorm warning at May 15, 2002, 8:48 PM CDT for Furnas County, Nebraska. It was in force for 57 min. 2 reports came from inside the area while it was in force.

The area

The outline as issued, with what was reported inside it.

The facts

Issued: May 15, 2002, 8:48 PM CDT (01:48 UTC)
Expired: May 15, 2002, 9:45 PM CDT
In force: 57 min
Issued by: NWS Hastings, NE
Area: Counties, with a storm outline in the text

County Furnas County, NE

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 125 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:52 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.

Open the radar archive at this moment

The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.

What was reported inside it

Time	Report	Where	Remark
May 15, 9:16 PM CDT	Hail 0.88	Hendley, NE
May 15, 9:44 PM CDT	Hail 1	Arapahoe, NE

NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.

Did it verify

Not verified. The Iowa Environmental Mesonet's Cow found no qualifying storm report inside this severe thunderstorm warning while it was in force. That is not proof nothing happened: reports are thin where few people live.

Cow counts a report within 15 km of the polygon while the warning was in force: a tornado for a tornado warning; hail of 1 inch or more, a gust of 58 mph or more or wind damage for a severe thunderstorm warning; a flash flood report for a flash flood warning.

The nearest sounding before it

N. Platte/Lee Bi, NE (KLBF), launched 00:00Z, 1.8 hours before the alert went out and 125 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 444 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -117 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 2279 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 90 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.0
Supercell composite: 0.3

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

000 
WUUS53 KGID 160148
SVRGRI
NEC065-160245-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
847 PM CDT WED MAY 15 2002

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HASTINGS HAS ISSUED A

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WARNING FOR...
  FURNAS COUNTY IN SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA

* UNTIL 945 PM CDT

* AT 847 PM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
  LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS FROM 5 MILES NORTHWEST OF BEAVER CITY
  TO WILSONVILLE...OR FROM 24 MILES NORTH OF NORTON TO 22 MILES
  NORTHWEST OF NORTON...MOVING NORTHEAST AT 15 MPH.

* SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE NEAR...
  EDISON AT 910 PM CDT
  CAMBRIDGE AT 915 PM CDT
  ARAPAHOE AT 930 PM CDT
  HOLBROOK AT 935 PM CDT

PEOPLE IN FURNAS COUNTY SHOULD SEEK SHELTER IN A STURDY STRUCTURE AND
STAY AWAY FROM WINDOWS.

DAMAGING THUNDERSTORM WINDS IN EXCESS OF 60 MPH AND LARGE HAIL THE
SIZE OF GOLFBALLS ARE LIKELY.

LAT...LON 4003 9967 3998 10029 4032 10017 4033 9966

NNNN

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before this severe thunderstorm warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Hastings, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before this severe thunderstorm warning went out at May 15, 2:10 PM CDT, 6 hours 38 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 15, 2:10 PM CDT, 6 hours 38 minutes before

SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA/NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
210 PM CDT WED MAY 15 2002

SHRTWVS OUT OF TROF EXTENDING FM SCNTRL CANADA ACRS THE SALT LAKE
AND OVR BAJA WL DEFINE THE PRIMARY PROBLEM OF THE DAY.

SMALL CLUSTER OF -TSRA FORMED NR THE KS/NEB BRDR EARLY THIS
AFTN...APPARENTLY ON TAIL END OF IMPULSE SPPRTG MORE WIDESPREAD
ACTIVITY OVR THE OAX CWA.  EXPECT A BRIEF BREAK THIS EVE WITH SHRTWV
RIDGING AS PER 18Z LAPS DPVA AND MID LVL HT TRENDS...BUT WL MONITOR
FOR FINAL ZFP WORDING.

WEAK CDFNT HAS SLOLY PROGRESSED ACRS THE NRN GID CWA TDA IN WAKE OF
AFORE MENTIONED XG SHRTWV.  BNDRY IS EXPECTED TO HANG OVR NCNTRL
KS/SERN NEB BY EVE WITH UPSLOPE FLOW DVLPG AS LOW DPNS OVR WRN KS.
SPPRTG SHRTWV DUE TO X NRN KS OVRNGT/EARLY MRNG.  50+KT LLVL JET ETA
PROGGED TO CONVRG MSTR NR AND N OF THE BNDRY WITH MDL SNDINGS INDG
MODERATE INSTABILITY FM AN ELEVATED LIFT.  WL BUMP POPS TO LIKELY
CATEGORY OVR THE SRN CWA AND MAKE SOME ADJUSTMENTS FOR TIMING INTO
THE EARLY 2ND PD...FOLLOWED BY SHRTWV RIDGE SUPPRESSION IN THE AFTN.

NXT SIGNIFICANT IMPULSE EXPECTED LATE THU NGT...WL ADJUST FOR THAT
TIMING AS MDLS ARE IN GENL AGRMT.  MSTR WITH THAT WAVE SHOULD BE
CONFINED TO THE MID LVLS WITH FRONT PROGRESSION SWD...AND WITH
INSTABILITY AND LAPSE RATES CURRENTLY PROGGED TO BE LACKING...WL
SCALE BACK POPS AND T MENTION FOR THE 3RD PD WITH CHC NMBRS FOR SRN
CWA ONLY.

WL NOT CHANGE DRY EXTENDED WITH BLOCKING PTN/HIGH AMPLITUDE RIDGE
OVR THE CNTRL CONUS.  MID WEEK FMR TEMP NBRS LK TOO LOW SO WL
MAINTAIN THE ONGOING WARM PROGNOSIS WITH MINOR ADJUSTMENTS ONLY.

.GID...NONE.

09

In the hours before

Special weather statement, May 15, 5:00 PM CDT, 3 hours 48 minutes before

KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087-152300-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
500 PM CDT WED MAY 15 2002

...SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED ACROSS PARTS OF SOUTH-CENTRAL
NEBRASKA AND NORTH-CENTRAL KANSAS TONIGHT...

A CHANCE FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL COME TO THE AREA TONIGHT...WITH A
FRONTAL BOUNDARY POSITIONED NORTHEAST TO SOUTHWEST ACROSS THE
FORECAST AREA. WITH MOISTURE RETURNING INTO SOUTH AND EASTERN
PORTIONS OF THE REGION THIS EVENING...AND MODERATE INSTABILITY
ALREADY IN PLACE ACROSS NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS AND PORTIONS OF SOUTH
CENTRAL NEBRASKA...ANY STORMS THAT DEVELOP OR MOVE INTO THE AREA MAY
PRODUCE MARGINALLY SEVERE HAIL OR WIND TONIGHT...MOST LIKELY AFTER 9
PM. THE MAIN RISK AREA IS IN NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS...ALTHOUGH SOUTH
CENTRAL NEBRASKA LOCATIONS SOUTH OF INTERSTATE 80 AND EAST OF
HIGHWAY 281 COULD SEE A SEVERE STORM.

EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OFFICIALS AND SPOTTER GROUPS...ESPECIALLY THOSE
IN NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS...SHOULD MONITOR THE LATEST FORECASTS AND
STATEMENTS.

Local storm report, May 15, 8:04 PM CDT, 44 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
804 PM CDT WED MAY 15 2002

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

0747 PM    1 S OSBORNE               KS   .75 INCH HAIL
05/15/02   OSBORNE                        REPORTED BY LAW
                                          ENFORCEMENT OFFICIAL.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Hastings, NE issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 15, 8:52 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Webster	58 min
May 15, 9:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Harlan	62 min
May 15, 9:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GID	Furnas, Gosper, Kearney, Phelps	57 min

Nearby

Severe Thunderstorm Warnings in Nebraska, 2002 Every severe thunderstorm warning in 2002

Sources

The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.