Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Watches in 2025
Tornado Watch 291
The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 18, 2025, 8:57 PM CDT for 17 counties in Kansas; 22 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 4 hr.
The area
The outline as issued.
The facts
- Issued
- May 18, 2025, 8:57 PM CDT (01:57 UTC)
- Expired
- May 19, 2025, 1:00 AM CDT
- In force
- 4 hr
- Issued by
- the Storm Prediction Center
- Largest hail expected
- 2.5 in
- Strongest gust expected
- 60 kt
All 39 counties
Barton County, KS, Decatur County, KS, Ellsworth County, KS, Harper County, KS, Jewell County, KS, Kingman County, KS, Lincoln County, KS, Mitchell County, KS, Norton County, KS, Osborne County, KS, Phillips County, KS, Rawlins County, KS, Reno County, KS, Rice County, KS, Rooks County, KS, Russell County, KS, Smith County, KS, Buffalo County, NE, Custer County, NE, Dawson County, NE, Franklin County, NE, Frontier County, NE, Furnas County, NE, Gosper County, NE, Greeley County, NE, Hall County, NE, Harlan County, NE, Hayes County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Howard County, NE, Kearney County, NE, Lincoln County, NE, Merrick County, NE, Nance County, NE, Phelps County, NE, Red Willow County, NE, Sherman County, NE, Valley County, NE, Webster County, NE
The radar
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 82 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 01:58 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 SPC expected
The probabilities SPC published with the watch, for the watch area over its life.
- Two or more tornadoes
- 50%
- One or more EF2 to EF5 tornadoes
- 30%
- Ten or more severe wind reports
- 50%
- One or more gusts of 65 knots or more
- 20%
- Ten or more severe hail reports
- 50%
- One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more
- 40%
- Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports
- 80%
Warnings issued inside it
14 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 18, 8:57 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | GLD | Hitchcock | 18 min |
| May 18, 9:05 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | ICT | Barton, Ellsworth, Russell | 40 min |
| May 18, 9:22 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GLD | Hitchcock, Red Willow | 67 min |
| May 18, 9:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LBF | Lincoln | 40 min |
| May 18, 9:59 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LBF | Custer, Lincoln, Logan | 46 min |
| May 18, 10:35 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | LBF | Blaine, Custer, Logan | 40 min |
| May 18, 11:01 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Smith | 44 min |
| May 18, 11:19 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Buffalo, Dawson | 26 min |
| May 18, 11:21 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Reno | 39 min |
| May 18, 11:39 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Buffalo, Dawson, Sherman | 51 min |
| May 18, 11:44 PM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Sherman, Valley | 46 min |
| May 18, 11:50 PM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Reno | 25 min |
| May 19, 12:08 AM CDT | Tornado Warning | ICT | Reno, Rice | 27 min |
| May 19, 12:22 AM CDT | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | GID | Buffalo, Greeley, Hall, Howard, Sherman, Valley | 53 min |
Discussions around it
SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.
The nearest sounding before it
Dodge City, (KDDC), launched 00:00Z, 2.0 hours before the alert went out and 266 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.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2754 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -64 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 616 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 74 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 599 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 675 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 11.3
- Supercell composite
- 45.1
SPC that day
Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 18, 7:16 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Barber, Barton, Clark, Comanche, Decatur, Edwards and 23 more | 119 min |
| May 18, 9:27 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Comanche, Edwards, Kiowa, Pratt | 63 min |
| May 18, 10:05 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Jewell, Lincoln, Mitchell, Norton, Osborne, Phillips and 2 more | 115 min |
| May 18, 11:41 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Reno | 2 hr |
| May 19, 11:12 AM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Chautauqua, Cowley, Montgomery | 3 hr |
| May 19, 12:50 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Butler and 36 more | 115 min |
| May 19, 1:37 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Allen, Anderson, Atchison, Bourbon, Brown, Butler and 40 more | 9 hr |
| May 19, 3:12 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Marshall, Nemaha, Pottawatomie, Riley, Washington | 2 hr |
| May 19, 5:17 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Ellis, Finney, Ford, Gove, Grant, Gray and 14 more | 118 min |
| May 19, 12:37 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Boone, Burt, Butler, Clay, Colfax, Cuming and 23 more | 113 min |
| May 19, 1:11 PM CDT | Tornado Watch | SPC | Antelope, Boone, Butler, Cass, Clay, Colfax and 25 more | 7 hr |
| May 19, 6:08 PM CDT | Mesoscale Discussion | SPC | Burt, Butler, Cass, Dodge, Douglas, Gage and 10 more | 2 hr |
Nearby
Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2025Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2025Every tornado watch in 2025
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.