Hail in Nebraska, August 12, 2001

Name: Hail in Nebraska, August 12, 2001
Start: 2001-08-12T11:55
End: 2001-08-12T18:00
Location: Nebraska

August 12, 2001 · NWS GID · 5 events in 3 counties and zones

Scattered severe thunderstorms produced a narrow swath of minor crop damage across a small part of southern Dawson county and extreme norther Gosper county. Drifts of hail were reported on U.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: $20,000
Crop damage: $1.3 million
Events: 5

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What happened

The episode as NWS GID wrote it up.

Scattered severe thunderstorms produced a narrow swath of minor crop damage across a small part of southern Dawson county and extreme norther Gosper county. Drifts of hail were reported on U. S. Highway 283 southwest of Lexington.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, 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 the first event at Aug 12, 2:13 AM CST, 9 hours 42 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Aug 12, 2:13 AM CST, 9 hours 42 minutes before

SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA/NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
313 AM CDT SUN AUG 12 2001

...FORECAST CHALLENGE WILL BE PRECIP TODAY...

AT THE LOWEST LEVELS...H85 AND SFC ANALYSES FEATURED MOISTURE
POOLING OVER SRN PLAINS IN OK ALONG WHATS LEFT OF BOUNDARY. BUILDING
RIDGE ANALYZED OVER SW CONUS WILL BE DOMINANT IN THE NEAR
TERM...WITH PCPN CHANCES HINGING ON SUBTLE WAVES IN QUASI NW FLOW.

AT 06Z SHORT-LIVED SHRA ACTIVITY IN NRN CWA WAS KICKED OFF BY FIRST
SUCH WAVE. VORT ENERGY ENHANCED BY JET SUPPORT IS KICKING OUT OF NRN
ROCKIES IN ERN WY PER SATELLITE IMAGERY AND H5 UAA WILL STEER S/W
THROUGH WRN NEB THIS MORNING AND INTO THE N CENTRAL LATER WHERE
MARGINAL INSTABILITY MAY PROVIDE ENOUGH FOR ELEVATED CONVECTION IN
NRN CWFA TDA.

AS WAVE APPROACHES TODAY TEMPS WILL BE NEXT CONCERN WITH DEGREE OF
CLOUD COVER KEY FACTOR. MODELS SEEM TO BE OVER DOING CLOUDS AS THEY
DID WITH OVERNIGHT PCPN.  WITH THIS IN MIND...MX VALUES APPROACHING
MID 80S STILL SEEM ON TRACK CONSIDERING NUMERICAL GUIDANCE TRENDS.

VORT PROGGED TO MOVE SE TONIGHT WITH RESULTING INCREASE IN CLOUD
COVER...BUT NOT ENOUGH MOISTURE CONVERGENCE EXPECTED TO WARRANT
POPS. THIS MAY IMPACT LOWS BY KEEPING UP BY JUST A COUPLE DEGREES.

WAVE WILL SCOOT EAST ON MON ALLOWING RIDGE TO EXPAND. INCREASED
H5-10 THICKNESS AND SUFFICIENT MIXING WILL PROVIDE SLIGHT WARMING
AND GRADUAL RETURN OF LL MOISTURE IN ADVANCE OF NEXT VORT ENERGY. BY
MONDAY NIGHT WEAK SFC TROF WILL BE TO NW WITH DECENT TIGHTENING
SETTING UP HERE.  TRENDS SHOW ETA TO BE HANDLING PATTERN BEST AS AVN
HAS SEVERELY OVERDONE PCP AND COOL TEMPS LATELY. ALSO SKEPTICAL OF
LINGERING PCPN FOR TUES SO WILL LEAVE DRY BUT KEEP EYE ON NEXT RUN.
BEST CHANCE WILL BE NORTHERN AND WESTERN ZONES WHERE UPR LVL ENERGY
WILL RIDE THROUGH MON NIGHT.

IN THE EXTENDED...SLIGHTLY COOLER PATTERN CHANGE WILL TAKE HOLD
BEHIND WAVE ON TUES WITH NEXT MAJOR TROUGH RESLULTING FROM CANADIAN
AIRMASS BACKING INTO REGION. STRONG H5 WAVE PROGGED BY ALL SOLUTIONS
WILL BE IN VCNTY WED WITH FAIR SHOT AT WIDESPREAD RAIN...BUT LOOKS
TO GET OUT OF HERE A BIT QUICKER AND WILL TAKE OUT POPS FOR THURS.

.GID...NONE.

33

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Aug 12, 10:55 AM CST, 1 hour before

KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087-122100-

SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK - SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA/NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
1155 AM CDT SUN AUG 12 2001

...SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED TODAY OR TONIGHT ACROSS
SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS...

AN UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL BRING SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS TO
PARTS OF THE REGION THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING. SOME OF THESE STORMS
WILL PRODUCE BRIEF...HEAVY DOWNPOURS AND GUSTY WINDS. HOWEVER...NO
SEVERE WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. THE BEST CHANCE FOR RAIN
WILL EXIST GENERALLY ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 80.

GURNEY

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 17:54 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

5 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Fillmore

When: August 12, 11:55 AM CST
Where: Fillmore County, Exeter
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 40.650, -97.450

Hail, Dawson

When: August 12, 4:17 PM CST
Where: Dawson County, Gothenburg
Measured: 1.75 in hail
Property damage: $10,000
Crop damage: $250,000
Reported by: UTILITY COMPANY
Coordinates: 40.933, -100.150

Hail, Dawson

When: August 12, 5:08 PM CST
Where: Dawson County, 6 mi SW of Lexington
Measured: 1 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Crop damage: $500,000
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 40.717, -99.817

Hail, Gosper

When: August 12, 5:08 PM CST
Where: Gosper County, 6 mi N of Elwood
Measured: 1 in hail
Property damage: $5,000
Crop damage: $500,000
Reported by: LAW ENFORCEMENT
Coordinates: 40.683, -99.850

Hail, Gosper

When: August 12, 6:00 PM CST
Where: Gosper County, 10 mi SW of Elwood
Measured: 0.75 in hail
Reported by: GENERAL PUBLIC
Coordinates: 40.500, -99.983

What these are

Hail: Hail three-quarters of an inch or larger, or smaller hail that caused damage, filed with the largest stone measured.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Nebraska in 2001 Every state in 2001 This day in weather history Warnings in Nebraska, August 2001

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5265752, 5265753, 5265754, 5265755, 5265756.