Name: Hail in Nebraska, April 18, 2002
Start: 2002-04-18T00:10
End: 2002-04-18T00:10
Location: Nebraska

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

Open the live radar over this ground

The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

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 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 Apr 17, 2:13 PM CST, 9 hours 57 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 17, 2:13 PM CST, 9 hours 57 minutes before

SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA/NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
313 PM CDT WED APR 17 2002

THUNDERSTORM CHANCES AND TEMPERATURES MAIN CHALLENGES.

LATEST SURFACE ANALYSIS SHOWS WARM FRONT NEAR THE NEBR/KANSAS
BORDER. A DRY LINE EXTENDS ACROSS WESTERN KS CWFA COUNTIES.  LOW
LEVEL MOISTURE WILL ADVECT ACROSS EASTERN CWFA THIS EVENING BEFORE
DRIER AIR PUNCHES THROUGH.  WATER VAPOR IMAGERY SHOWS A JET MAX
ADVANCING NE OUT OF NEW MEXICO WHICH LOOKS TO HAVE SOME MID LEVEL
MOISTURE ASSOCIATED WITH IT.  WITH GOOD HEATING TODAY AFTER A CHILLY
START...ENOUGH INSTABILITY TO PROVIDE ALL INGREDIENTS FOR
THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT THIS EVENING ALONG THE FRONT. BIGGEST
PROBLEM WILL BE OVERALL COLUMN MOISTURE WHICH WILL SUPPORT ONLY
ISOLATED TO SCATTERED COVERAGE AT BEST.  WILL PUT IN SMALL POPS
ACROSS THE EAST BUT BEST CHANCES WILL BE LATER TONIGHT FARTHER
NORTHEAST...OUT OF CWFA...WHEN/WHERE LOW LEVEL JET/THETA E ADVECTION
REALLY FOCUSES MOISTURE.  ETA 310 K ISENTROPIC SURFACE IS QUITE IS
STEEP LATER TONIGHT TO THE NORTHEAST.

THOSE SOUTH WINDS WILL INCREASE TONIGHT DUE TO DEEPENING SURFACE LOW
OVER THE DAKOTAS.  EXPECT WINDY CONDITIONS OVERNIGHT WHICH WILL KEEP
TEMPERATURES AOA GUIDANCE...QUITE A BIT ABOVE GOING FORECAST.  AS
MENTIONED IN NATL DISCN...FRONTAL MOVEMENT THU HAS TRENDED SLOWER
AND THERE MAY BE ENOUGH RESIDUAL MOISTURE ALONG WITH DAYTIME HEATING
TO KICK OFF A TSTM THU EVENING IN THE SOUTHERN CWFA...SO HAVE KEPT
SMALL POPS THERE.

COOL HIGH PRESSURE THEN BUILDS IN FOR THE WEEKEND...BUT NOT BEFORE
MORE WIND THU NGT.  HAVE DELAYED RAIN CHANCES HOWEVER...UNTIL EARLY
NEXT WEEK WHEN OVER RUNNING OF THE HIGH BEGINS WITH NEXT RESURGENCE
OF A WARMER AIRMASS.

.GID...NONE.

DROZD

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Thayer

When: April 18, 12:10 AM CST
Where: Thayer County, Gilead
Measured: 1 in hail
Reported by: TRAINED SPOTTER
Coordinates: 40.133, -97.467

One inch size hail covered the ground in Gilead.

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

More

Every storm in Nebraska in 2002 Every state in 2002 This day in weather history Warnings in Nebraska, April 2002

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: 5280877.