Mother Nature provided her own fireworks on this Independence Day as severe thunderstorms lashed out across north-central Kansas. Rooks and Phillips counties were hardest hit.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
The episode as NWS GID wrote it up.
Mother Nature provided her own fireworks on this Independence Day as severe thunderstorms lashed out across north-central Kansas. Rooks and Phillips counties were hardest hit. In Rooks county, three people were injured when their camper was toppled and rolled by the wind at Webster State Park. The injuries were minor, even though the camper rolled almost three times. Another camper was damaged, but that camper was unoccupied at the time. 25 to 50 power poles were snapped across Rooks county. Several buildings in the southern part of the county sustained at least minor damage. In Phillipsburg, an airplane at the airport was flipped and damaged and numerous large trees were uprooted. In Smith Center, a large window was blown out of a building on South Main Street. There were numerous limbs down around that time. Once the storm reached Jewell and Mitchell counties, a 68 mph wind gust was recorded near Webber and a 76 mph wind gust at Beloit. Power was out for a time in Beloit. Several large trees were toppled and there were several instances of minor damage throughout the town.
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 Jul 4, 8:55 PM CST, 29 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE 955 PM CDT SUN JUL 4 2004 .DISCUSSION...A DEFINITE DIFFERENCE TONIGHT AS OPPOSED TO LAST NIGHT IN TERMS OF CONV EVOLUTION THIS EVENING. GROWING CONCERN LATE THIS EVENING IS W/MERGING SRN/NRN STREAM SW TROFS OUT WEST. NEW ETA40 500 MB HGT REFLECTION OF THIS LOOKS QUITE GOOD AND GIVEN ENHANCED BACKED LL INFLOW INTO DVLPG LINE SEGMENTS BOTH WEST AND SOUTH ALG W/APPRECIABLE PWS IN PLACE AND STEEP MID LVL LAPSE RATE PLUME OVERHEAD ALL SPELL TROUBLE OVR SRN NEB AND NRN KS. WILL BE UPDATING SHORTLY FOR FLOOD WATCH TONIGHT INTO TOMORROW MORNING BASICALLY ALG AND SOUTH OF A GENEVA TO HASTINGS TO PHILLIPSBURG LINE. && T && .PREV DISCUSSION... .SHORT TERM...TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT...MAIN CONCERNS WILL BE PRECIPITATION CHANCES AND AFTERNOON TEMPERATURES. UPPER LEVEL SHORT WAVE WAS MOVING EAST NORTHEAST ACROSS SOUTHWEST COLORADO EARLY THIS AFTERNOON...AS SEEN IN THE WATER VAPOR IMAGERY. IN SURFACE OBSERVATIONS...A DRY LINE CAN BE SEEN IN THE NEBRASKA PANHANDLE EXTENDING SOUTH THROUGH EASTERN COLORADO. A SURFACE BOUNDARY WAS ALSO LAYING ACROSS SOUTHERN SOUTH DAKOTA...INTO EXTREME NORTHERN NEBRASKA. CONVECTION WAS INITIATING IN THE PANHANDLE OF NEBRASKA EARLY THIS AFTERNOON...AND ALONG THE FRONT RANGE OF THE ROCKIES IN COLORADO. LAPS 19Z ANALYSIS OF CAPE HAD VALUES UP TO 6300 J/KG ALONG THE KANSAS/COLORADO BORDERS...DECREASING TO NEAR 2300 J/KG IN GOSPER AND FURNAS COUNTIES. THE LOW LEVEL WIND FIELD HAS REMAINED WEAK ACROSS SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS. CONVECTION SHOULD CONTINUE TO DEVELOP ALONG THE DRY LINE IN WESTERN NEBRASKA AND KANSAS. UPPER LEVEL WAVE SHOULD HELP GIVE GREATER DEFINITION TO THE STORM STRUCTURE. LOW LEVEL WIND FIELDS ARE A LIMITING FACTOR IN THE THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT IN OUR AREA BECAUSE IT IS SO WEAK...IT MAY PLAY A ROLE IN KEEPING WIND POTENTIAL DOWN AS THE GUST FRONT WILL NOT BE MAINTAINED CLOSE TO THE MAIN CONVECTION AS IT MATURES. MID-LEVEL WINDS ASSOCIATED WITH THE WAVE MOVING OUT OF COLORADO...MAY HELP ORGANIZE CONVECTION INTO A MCS. FRONTAL BOUNDARY WILL BE SINKING SOUTH THROUGH NEBRASKA ON MONDAY... AND AN UPPER LEVEL TROUGH JUST NORTH OF IDAHO THIS AFTERNOON WILL BE DROPPING DOWN INTO THE PLAINS. THE TWO SHOULD PROVIDE SUFFICIENT LIFT FOR CONVECTION TOMORROW AFTERNOON AND NIGHT. PRECIPITATION WILL HELP KEEP TEMPERATURES LOWER TOMORROW. TUESDAY THE AREA WILL BE BEHIND THE FRONT...AND TEMPERATURES WILL BE RUNNING ABOUT 10 TO 15 DEGREES BELOW NORMAL. UPPER LEVEL TROUGH WILL BE WELL EAST OF THE REGION BY WEDNESDAY...AND RIDGE WILL BE BUILDING INTO THE PLAINS. EXPECT TEMPERATURES TO REBOUND NICELY TO NEAR NORMAL LEVELS. .LONG TERM...WEDNESDAY TO SUNDAY. MODELS BEGINNING TO COME INTO MORE AGREEMENT WITH OVERALL PATTERN IN THE EXTENDED. HEIGHTS RISE WEDNESDAY BEHIND DEPARTING TROF WITH RIDGE AXIS BUILDING ONTO THE CENTRAL PLAINS. FLOW TRANSITIONS SOUTHWEST BY LATE THURSDAY WITH WEAK SHORTWAVES LIFTING OUT OF THE SOUTHWEST CONUS. AN OUTSIDE CHANCE FOR CONVECTION EXISTS AND HAVE MAINTAINED OUR CURRENT LOW POPS. UPPER TROF DEEPENS IN MANITOBA BY FRIDAY WITH COOL FRONT PUSHING SOUTH INTO THE DAKOTAS. MODELS TRENDING FARTHER NORTH WITH UPPER LOW SO WILL NEED TO MONITOR HOW FAR SOUTH INITIATION POINT OF CONVECTION WILL BE. UPPER TROF LIFTS OUT OVER THE WEEKEND AND RESIDUAL BOUNDARY MAY AGAIN FOCUS CONVECTION...OTHERWISE A GENERAL WARMING TREND IS EXPECTED. && .GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NE...NONE. KS...NONE. && NELSON/FAY
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE 724 PM CDT SUN JUL 4 2004 KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087-051200- ADAMS-BUFFALO-CLAY-DAWSON-FILLMORE-FRANKLIN-FURNAS-GOSPER-GREELEY- HALL-HAMILTON-HARLAN-HOWARD-JEWELL-KEARNEY-MERRICK-MITCHELL-NANCE- NUCKOLLS-OSBORNE-PHELPS-PHILLIPS-POLK-ROOKS-SHERMAN-SMITH-THAYER- VALLEY-WEBSTER-YORK- 724 PM CDT SUN JUL 4 2004 ...SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH UNTIL 2 AM CDT MONDAY... THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS. .DAY ONE...TONIGHT THUNDERSTORMS OVER WESTERN NEBRASKA WILL CONTINUE TO ORGANIZE THIS EVENING AS THEY MOVE EAST INTO THE OUTLOOK AREA BETWEEN 8 AND 10 PM. THUNDERSTORM WIND GUSTS TO 70 MPH...HAIL UP TO ONE INCH IN DIAMETER...AND HEAVY RAINFALL THE THREATS WITH LOCALIZED FLOODING POSSIBLE IN AREAS WHERE SOIL CONDITIONS REMAIN SATURATED. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...MONDAY THROUGH SATURDAY THUNDERSTORM CHANCES WILL CONTINUE ACROSS THE AREA MONDAY AND MONDAY NIGHT...WITH ISOLATED CHANCES FOR LARGE HAIL AND LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL POSSIBLE ONCE AGAIN. ADDITIONAL SMALL CHANCES FOR THUNDERSTORMS WILL EXIST THURSDAY THROUGH SATURDAY. .SPOTTER ACTIVATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE NEEDED THIS EVENING. && FOR MORE INFORMATION...LOG ONTO THE HASTINGS NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEB-PAGE... HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/GID (ALL LOWER CASE) NELSON/T
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
813 PM CDT SUN JUL 04 2004
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION...ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0900 PM TSTM WND GST SHERMAN RESERVOIR DAM 41.30N 98.88W
07/03/2004 60 MPH SHERMAN NE PUBLIC
2 BOATS CAPSIZED - REPORT RECEIVED 7/4
&&
NELSONThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
9 thunderstorm wind, 3 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Penny to walnut size hail was reported in the Palco area along with 70 mph winds.
The occupants of a camper overturned by strong thunderstorm winds were slightly injured.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 2004Every state in 2004This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, July 2004
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: 5411357, 5411358, 5411359, 5411360, 5411361, 5411362, 5411363, 5411364, 5411365, 5411366, 5411367, 5411368.