A rogue elevated severe thunderstorm flared up just before sunrise on this Saturday morning, dropping a swath of large hail from quarter to tennis ball size across parts of northern Jewell County. The initial cluster of storms that eventually fueled this isolated hail event developed many hours earlier on late Friday evening in South Central Nebraska, about 100 miles to the north.
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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 GID wrote it up.
A rogue elevated severe thunderstorm flared up just before sunrise on this Saturday morning, dropping a swath of large hail from quarter to tennis ball size across parts of northern Jewell County. The initial cluster of storms that eventually fueled this isolated hail event developed many hours earlier on late Friday evening in South Central Nebraska, about 100 miles to the north. Through the night, this loosely organized line of generally weak thunderstorms marched slowly south toward North Central Kansas, fed along the nose of a 40 knot southwesterly low level jet. While most-unstable CAPE values were quite weak through most of the night, an area of nearly 1000 j/kg MUCAPE eventually intersected the loosely organized line of storms prior to sunrise, in an area of maximized warm air advection on the nose of the low level jet. This rather abrupt increase in instability, working in concert with deep-layer vertical wind shear around 40 knots, likely resulted in the sudden storm intensification over northern Jewell County.
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 Sep 25, 5:42 AM CST, 0 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE 642 AM CDT SAT SEP 25 2010 .AVIATION...12Z TAF. MAIN CONCERN FOR THE TERMINAL LIES WITH PRECIPITATION CHANCES AND A SFC FRONTAL PASSAGE. PRIMARY AREA OF OVERNIGHT CONVECTION HAS SINCE MOVED OFF TO THE SOUTHEAST OF THE TERMINAL...SO HAVE REMOVED ALL MENTION FROM THIS MORNING. UPPER LEVEL TROUGH STILL ON TAP TO CROSS THE PLAINS THROUGH THE DAY...AND AS IT DOES SO...WILL PUSH A SURFACE COLD FRONT THROUGH THE CWA. THE TIMING OF THIS FRONT STILL EXPECTED TO BRING IT THROUGH DURING THE EARLY/MID MORNING HOURS...WITH WINDS REMAINING N/NW THE REST OF THE DAY. EXPECTING SOME GUSTS NEAR 20 TO 25 MPH THIS AFTERNOON...BEFORE TAPERING OFF THIS EVENING. NOT CONFIDENT IN ANY PRECIPITATION RESULTING FROM THE PASSAGE OF THE UPPER LEVEL TROUGH ACTUALLY IMPACTING THE TERMINAL...SO LEFT MENTION OUT. && .PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 408 AM CDT SAT SEP 25 2010/ DISCUSSION...BIGGEST FORECAST CHALLENGE WILL BE CHANCES FOR PRECIPITATION TODAY...MAINLY THIS MORNING. OVERALL UPPER LEVEL SCENARIO DEPICTS A LONGWAVE RIDGE IN THE WESTERN CONUS AND LONGWAVE TROUGH IN THE EASTERN CONUS WITH A SHORTWAVE TROUGH MAKING ITS WAY SOUTHEAST WITHIN NORTHWEST FLOW ACROSS THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL PLAINS. AS A LOW-LEVEL JET DEVELOPED DURING THE NIGHT...SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS BLOSSOMED ALONG A PREFRONTAL TROUGH AND CONTINUE TO MOVE TO THE EAST SOUTHEAST. WITH LIMITED EFFECTIVE BULK SHEAR AND INSTABILITY...THE STORMS HAVE REMAINED NON-SEVERE...BUT QUITE THE NOTICEABLE SURFACE COLD POOL DEVELOPED WITH A NOTICEABLE DROP IN TEMPERATURES ACCOMPANYING THE ASSOCIATED OUTFLOW BOUNDARY PASSAGE. THIS LINE SHOULD CLEAR THE CWA THIS MORNING...BUT ANOTHER BIT OF CONCERN IS THE INCREASING LOW-LEVEL LAPSE RATE COMBINED WITH COLD AIR ADVECTION AND THE PROXIMITY OF AT LEAST THE EASTERN CWA TO THE MAIN SHORTWAVE TROUGH MOVING THROUGH. ALTHOUGH DEW POINTS WILL BE RELATIVELY LOW...WE COULD EEK OUT AT LEAST SOME SPRINKLES IN THE EASTERN CWA. THERE DOES NOT APPEAR TO BE ENOUGH INSTABILITY TO SUPPORT THUNDERSTORMS BY THIS AFTERNOON...SO I LEFT ANY MENTION OF THUNDER OUT OF THE FORECAST IN ASSOCIATION WITH THE POTENTIAL SPRINKLE POSSIBILITIES THIS AFTERNOON. AS THE SURFACE HIGH CONTINUES TO BUILD IN TONIGHT...WIND SHOULD DROP OFF SIGNIFICANTLY...AND BY LATE TONIGHT...THE CWA SHOULD BE NEAR THE SURFACE RIDGE AXIS...WITH VERY LIGHT TO CALM WIND EXPECTED...ALONG WITH RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES TOPPING OUT IN THE 90 TO 100 PERCENT RANGE. THIS COULD MEAN A LITTLE FOG FOR A CHUNK OF THE CWA...ESPECIALLY NEAR THE SURFACE RIDGE AXIS AND IN AREAS WHERE IT HAS OR IS RAINING THIS MORNING. NO HUGE CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO TEMPERATURES AND DEW POINTS...ONLY MINOR TWEAKS. THE FORECAST CONTINUES TO LOOK DRY FOR AWHILE AFTER TODAY WITH RIDGING STILL FORECAST TO DOMINATE. && .GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NE...NONE. KS...NONE. &&
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE 446 AM CDT SAT SEP 25 2010 KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087- 261200- PHILLIPS-SMITH-JEWELL-ROOKS-OSBORNE-MITCHELL-VALLEY-GREELEY-NANCE- SHERMAN-HOWARD-MERRICK-POLK-DAWSON-BUFFALO-HALL-HAMILTON-YORK- GOSPER-PHELPS-KEARNEY-ADAMS-CLAY-FILLMORE-FURNAS-HARLAN-FRANKLIN- WEBSTER-NUCKOLLS-THAYER- 446 AM CDT SAT SEP 25 2010 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND PORTIONS OF NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT. THUNDERSTORMS ARE POSSIBLE THIS MORNING SOUTHEAST OF A LINE FROM OSCEOLA TO RED CLOUD NEBRASKA TO STOCKTON KANSAS. NO SEVERE WEATHER WILL OCCUR WITH THESE STORMS. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY. NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED THROUGH TONIGHT. && MORE INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT THE FOLLOWING WEB PAGE: HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/HASTINGS (ALL LOWERCASE) HEINLEIN
The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 11:44 UTC.
2 hail. Local standard time, as filed.
Windshields were damaged or broken on some area vehicles.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 2010Every state in 2010This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, September 2010
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: 260269, 260270.