Alert archive / Nebraska / Tornado Watches in 2026

Tornado Watch 254

May 30, 2026Decatur County, Kansas; 21 counties in Nebraska

The Storm Prediction Center issued this tornado watch at May 30, 2026, 4:59 PM CDT for Decatur County, Kansas; 21 counties in Nebraska. It was in force for 6 hr.

The area

The outline as issued.

The facts

Issued: May 30, 2026, 4:59 PM CDT (21:59 UTC)
Expired: May 30, 2026, 11:00 PM CDT
In force: 6 hr
Issued by: the Storm Prediction Center
Largest hail expected: 3 in
Strongest gust expected: 65 kt

All 22 counties

Decatur County, KS, Arthur County, NE, Blaine County, NE, Chase County, NE, Cherry County, NE, Custer County, NE, Deuel County, NE, Dundy County, NE, Frontier County, NE, Garden County, NE, Grant County, NE, Hayes County, NE, Hitchcock County, NE, Hooker County, NE, Keith County, NE, Lincoln County, NE, Logan County, NE, McPherson County, NE, Perkins County, NE, Red Willow County, NE, Sheridan County, NE, Thomas County, NE

The radar

The North Platte radar (KLNX), 59 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:59 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: 20%
Ten or more severe wind reports: 50%
One or more gusts of 65 knots or more: 40%
Ten or more severe hail reports: 60%
One or more hailstones of 2 inches or more: 50%
Six or more combined severe hail and wind reports: 80%

Warnings issued inside it

23 tornado, severe thunderstorm and flash flood warnings for its counties while it was in force.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 30, 5:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Dundy	60 min
May 30, 5:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Chase	56 min
May 30, 5:37 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Hayes	38 min
May 30, 5:53 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Arthur, Garden, Keith	52 min
May 30, 6:10 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Hayes, Lincoln, Perkins	50 min
May 30, 6:19 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Deuel, Garden, Keith, Perkins	41 min
May 30, 6:25 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Destructive damage threat	LBF	Hayes, Lincoln, Perkins	50 min
May 30, 6:36 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Keith, Perkins	39 min
May 30, 6:39 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Arthur, Garden, Grant	51 min
May 30, 6:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Lincoln	46 min
May 30, 6:44 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Frontier	46 min
May 30, 6:48 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	GLD	Red Willow	25 min
May 30, 6:51 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Arthur, Keith, McPherson	39 min
May 30, 7:08 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Keith, Perkins	52 min
May 30, 7:20 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Lincoln	40 min
May 30, 7:21 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Arthur, Cherry, Grant, Hooker, McPherson, Thomas	39 min
May 30, 7:24 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Lincoln	51 min
May 30, 7:38 PM CDT	Tornado Warning	LBF	Lincoln	18 min
May 30, 7:55 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Cherry, Grant, Hooker, Logan, McPherson, Thomas	50 min
May 30, 7:58 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning Considerable damage threat	LBF	Custer	47 min
May 30, 7:59 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Custer, Lincoln, Logan, McPherson	46 min
May 30, 8:14 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Arthur, Deuel, Garden, Grant, Keith, Perkins	46 min
May 30, 8:43 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	LBF	Custer	47 min

Discussions around it

SPC mesoscale discussions over the same counties from four hours before the watch to its end.

SPC that day

Everything else SPC issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
May 30, 2:14 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and 1 more	2 hr
May 30, 3:13 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Weld and 1 more	7 hr
May 30, 6:20 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Elbert, Logan, Morgan and 2 more	85 min
May 30, 2:28 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barber, Barton, Butler, Clay, Cloud, Comanche and 32 more	3 hr
May 30, 3:10 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Allen, Bourbon, Cherokee, Crawford, Labette, Montgomery and 2 more	2 hr
May 30, 3:34 PM CDT	Severe Thunderstorm Watch	SPC	Barber, Barton, Clay, Cloud, Comanche, Dickinson and 35 more	6 hr
May 30, 3:51 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Decatur, Rawlins	114 min
May 30, 4:58 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Barton, Ellis, Ellsworth, Harper, Harvey, Kingman and 15 more	2 hr
May 29, 11:43 PM CDT	Mesoscale Discussion	SPC	Adams, Buffalo, Dawson, Franklin, Furnas, Gosper and 6 more	92 min

Nearby

Tornado Watches in Nebraska, 2026 Tornado Watches in Kansas, 2026 Every tornado watch in 2026

Sources

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