Lightning struck a home in North Platte during the early morning hours.
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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 LBF wrote it up.
Lightning struck a home in North Platte during the early morning hours.
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 North Platte, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jul 20, 3:00 AM CST, 1 hour 15 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE 400 AM CDT MON JUL 20 2009 .SYNOPSIS... 500 MB RIDGE CONTINUES OVER THE DESERT SOUTHWEST...HOWEVER TROF MOVING ACROSS S CENTRAL CANADA HAS FLATTENED THE NORTHERN PART OF THE RIDGE. AMPLIFIED TROF TO THE EAST...FROM THE GREAT LAKES NEARLY TO THE GULF COAST. AT THE SURFACE...A LOW IS PUSHING ACROSS CENTRAL CANADA WITH A TRAILING COLD FRONT ACROSS N DAKOTA AND JUST PUSHING INTO NORTHERN WY. SEVERAL WEAK SLOWLY EASTWARD MOVING OR STATIONARY BOUNDARIES ACROSS THE HIGH PLAINS. && .DISCUSSION... UPPER LEVEL SHORT WAVE PROVIDING THE NEEDED SUPPORT TO THE SURFACE BOUNDARIES...SEEN IN H2O VAPOR IMAGERY...HELPING TO PRODUCE WIDELY SCATTERED SHOWERS THIS MORNING ACROSS THE REGION. THESE SHOWERS WILL CONTINUE IN A SOUTHEAST MOTION...HOWEVER ADDITIONAL DEVELOP IN THE WAKE IS POSSIBLE. BETTER CHANCE WILL BE LATER THIS AFTERNOON ALONG AND AHEAD OF COLD FRONT. CAPE VALUES REACHING NEAR 3K J/KG TO GO ALONG WITH STRONGLY SHEER ENVIRONMENT AS WINDS AHEAD OF THE FRONT VEER FROM SOUTHEAST TO NORTHWEST. SUPERCELLS AND LARGE HAIL TO BE A THREAT...AS OUTLOOKED IN SPC DY1 WITH HATCHED AREA FOR HAIL. MAIN QUESTION WILL BE WHERE FRONT IS LOCATED WHEN ACTIVITY BREAKS OUT...WHICH SHOULD BE EARLY AFTERNOON...IF NOT SOON. MODELS DIFFER SLIGHTLY SO ONLY HAVE SVR WORDING IN MORE CONFIDENT SOUTHEASTERN ZONES. WINDS BECOME NE BEHIND THE FRONT AND PROVIDE A SLIGHT UPSLOPE TO CONTINUE THE THREAT FOR SHOWERS BEHIND THE FRONT...HOWEVER NOT EXPECTING A SEVERE THREAT. SURFACE HIGH BUILDS IN FOR TUESDAY AND WILL KEEP THINGS DRY AND SEASONABLE COOL. HOWEVER BY TUESDAY NIGHT AS THE HIGH SLIDES TO THE SE...UPSLOPING WILL AGAIN HAVE THE CHANCE TO FIRE SOME SHOWERS OVER THE HIGHER TERRAIN TO THE WEST...THEN PUSH EAST ONTO THE PLAINS...AS BEEN THE CASE MANY RECENT NIGHTS. WILL HAVE TO MONITOR MID LEVEL SHORT WAVES IN NW FLOW...AS THIS WILL LIKELY BE NEEDED TO PROVIDE ENOUGH CONVERGENCE. ACTIVE PATTERN IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE INTO THE WEEKEND...HOWEVER LATEST RUN OF THE GFS REAMPLIFIES THE RIDGE TO THE WEST...WHICH MAY DECREASE RAIN CHANCES AND BRING SOME WARMER TEMPS THAN GOING FORECAST. NEW ECMWF DOES NOT HAVE THIS AMPLIFICATION. OTHERWISE LIMITED CHANGES MADE BEYOND MIDWEEK. && .AVIATION... 08Z-18Z THIS MORNING...ISOLATED THUNDERSTORMS WILL PRODUCE IFR CONDITIONS ACROSS NCNTL NEB. STORM MOTION WILL BE EAST AND SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH. 18Z-03Z TODAY...A COLD FRONT WILL SETTLE ACROSS SWRN NEB THIS AFTERNOON. THE FRONT IS EXPECTED TO ACT AS A FOCUS FOR ISOLATED TO PERHAPS SCATTERED STRONG OR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. LARGE HAIL AND WIND DAMAGE ARE THE MAIN CONCERN. THE FRONT IS EXPECTED TO STRETCH NORTHEASTWARD ACROSS SWRN NEB THROUGH KBBW AND KONL WHERE THUNDERSTORMS COULD ALSO FORM. THUS 21Z-03Z IS THE TIME FRAME WHEREBY ISOLATED TO SCATTERED IFR CONDITIONS COULD DEVELOP ACROSS THE AFOREMENTIONED AREA. ELSEWHERE VFR CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED TO PREVAIL. STORM MOTION CONTINUES AT EAST AND SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH. 03Z ONWARD...THE FRONT SHOULD BE LOCATED ACROSS NRN KS THROUGH ERN NEB. VFR CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED ACROSS WRN AND NCNTL NEB. && .LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE. && SHORT TERM/EXTENDED...MASEK AVIATION...CDC
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE 515 AM CDT MON JUL 20 2009 NEZ004>010-022>029-035>038-056>059-069>071-094-211015- SHERIDAN-EASTERN CHERRY-KEYA PAHA-BOYD-BROWN-ROCK-HOLT-GARDEN- GRANT-HOOKER-THOMAS-BLAINE-LOUP-GARFIELD-WHEELER-ARTHUR-MCPHERSON- LOGAN-CUSTER-DEUEL-KEITH-PERKINS-LINCOLN-CHASE-HAYES-FRONTIER- WESTERN CHERRY- 515 AM CDT MON JUL 20 2009 /415 AM MDT MON JUL 20 2009/ THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF WESTERN AND NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. A WEAK COLD FRONT WILL SETTLE ACROSS CENTRAL NEBRASKA THIS MORNING. THE FRONT IS EXPECTED TO ACT AS A FOCUS FOR ISOLATED TO PERHAPS SCATTERED STRONG OR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS THIS AFTERNOON THROUGH EARLY THIS EVENING. LARGE HAIL AND WIND DAMAGE ARE THE MAIN CONCERN. THE FRONT IS EXPECTED TO STRETCH FROM NEAR CURTIS TO BROKEN BOW AND ONEILL. 3 PM TO 9 PM CDT IS THE TIME FRAME WHEREBY ISOLATED TO SCATTERED STRONG OR SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS ARE MOST LIKELY TO DEVELOP ALONG...NEAR OR JUST AHEAD OF THE FRONT. FORECAST STORM MOTION IS SOUTHEAST AT 20 MPH. ELSEWHERE ISOLATED TO SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS COULD DEVELOP AND AN ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORM IS POSSIBLE. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY. WEDNESDAY THROUGH FRIDAY...HEAT...MOISTURE AND INSTABILITY WILL RETURN. A STATIONARY FRONT WILL BE LOCATED SOMEWHERE ACROSS THE CENTRAL PLAINS. THE FRONT AND ANY DISTURBANCE WHICH CROSSES THE CENTRAL PLAINS COULD BE SUFFICIENT FOR THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT. WINDS ALOFT WILL CONTINUE TO BE STRONG SUPPORTIVE OF ISOLATED SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS CAPABLE OF LARGE HAIL OR WIND DAMAGE. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED THROUGH TONIGHT. && THIS PRODUCT IS NOW AVAILABLE...ALONG WITH OTHER WEATHER... HYDROLOGICAL AND CLIMATOLOGICAL INFORMATION...AT HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/NORTHPLATTE CDC
The North Platte radar (KLNX), 93 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 10:17 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning struck the chimney of a home owned by a National Weather Service employee in North Platte. The lightning blew bricks off the chimney and damaged a water heater near the chimney.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Nebraska in 2009Every state in 2009This day in weather historyWarnings in Nebraska, July 2009
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: 174913.