Kansas, 2011

Hail in Kansas, October 8, 2011

October 8, 2011 · NWS GID · 1 event in 1 county or zone

Although this six-county portion of North Central Kansas largely avoided the severe weather and heavy rainfall that impacted parts of northwest Kansas and south central Nebraska during the evening and overnight hours of Friday the 7th into Saturday the 8th, one small cluster of storms intensified just enough after sunrise on the 8th to produce penny size hail near Osborne. Clusters of generally…

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
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 happened

The episode as NWS GID wrote it up.

Although this six-county portion of North Central Kansas largely avoided the severe weather and heavy rainfall that impacted parts of northwest Kansas and south central Nebraska during the evening and overnight hours of Friday the 7th into Saturday the 8th, one small cluster of storms intensified just enough after sunrise on the 8th to produce penny size hail near Osborne. Clusters of generally weak thunderstorms began overspreading North Central Kansas from west to east during the pre-dawn hours, associated with warm air and moisture advection along the axis of a 50-60 knot low level jet evident at 850 millibars. Around the time of the hail report, deep-layer vertical wind shear values were strong at around 50 knots, but most-unstable CAPE values averaged under 1000 J/kg, with little to no low-level instability. Aloft, synoptic scale forcing was provided by a highly amplified mid-level trough dominating the western half of the United States, anchored by a closed low over the Central Rockies.

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 Oct 8, 5:36 AM CST, 1 hour 46 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Oct 8, 5:36 AM CST, 1 hour 46 minutes before
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Hazardous weather outlook, Oct 8, 4:27 AM CST, 2 hours 55 minutes before
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In the hours before

Special weather statement, Oct 8, 2:44 AM CST, 4 hours 38 minutes before
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Local storm report, Oct 8, 6:11 AM CST, 1 hour 11 minutes before
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Local storm report, Oct 8, 7:00 AM CST, 22 minutes before
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Local storm report, Oct 8, 7:22 AM CST, 0 minutes before
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The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 13:23 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 hail. Local standard time, as filed.

Hail, Osborne

When
October 8, 7:22 AM CST
Where
Osborne County, 3 mi E of Osborne
Measured
0.75 in hail
Reported by
Trained Spotter
Coordinates
39.430, -98.644

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 Kansas in 2011Every state in 2011This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, October 2011

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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 344985.