Name: Flood in Nebraska, April 27 to 28, 2012
Start: 2012-04-27T22:00
End: 2012-04-28T13:00
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 happened

The episode as NWS LBF wrote it up.

High flows were observed along the North Platte River through the end of April as elevated releases from Kingsley Dam at Lake McConaughy kept the river just below flood stage. When one to two inches of rain fell in the basin on April 26th and 27th, the river briefly rose above flood stage at North Platte on the 28th. Only minor flooding occurred.

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 North Platte, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 27, 8:07 PM CST, 1 hour 53 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 27, 8:07 PM CST, 1 hour 53 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE
907 PM CDT FRI APR 27 2012

.UPDATE...

DROPPED THE WIND ADVISORY FOR THE SOUTHEAST NEBRASKA PANHANDLE AND
SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA. CUT BACK ON PRECIPITATION AND REDUCED CLOUDS
AND WINDS ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA ALONG WITH CURRENT TRENDS.

&&

.PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 728 PM CDT FRI APR 27 2012/

AVIATION...
UPPER SYSTEM PULLING EAST AND WINDS OVER WESTERN NEBRASKA ARE
SHIFTING TO THE NORTHWEST. LIFR CIGS OVER SOUTHWEST NEBRASKA
MOVING EAST WITH A TEMPO GROUP RETAINED AT KLBF THROUGH 2802Z.
KVTN STILL IN FAIRLY DEEP EASTERLY FLOW WINDSHIFT BETWEEN 2802 AND
2803Z. LOW CLOUDS AND LIGHT RAIN STILL POSSIBLE AT KVTN THROUGH
2803Z AND THEN TO LIFT INTO VFR CIGS AND VISIBILITIES.

PREV DISCUSSION... /ISSUED 316 PM CDT FRI APR 27 2012/

DISCUSSION...
A WIND ADVISORY HAS BEEN HOISTED FOR PARTS OF WRN NEB WHICH RUNS
UNTIL 9 PM CDT. A BLEND OF THE MAV AND MET GUIDANCE WAS USED AS A
FIRST GUESS ON AFFECTED AREAS. THE PV15 ANOMALY ACROSS WY THIS
AFTN IS OF CONCERN. IT IS FCST TO MOVE THROUGH THE FCST AREA
OVERNIGHT. THE PROGRESS OF THIS ANOMALY AND THE INVERTED TROF
CURRENTLY NEARLY STATIONARY ACROSS WRN NEB WILL BE MONITORED
CLOSELY AS STRONG OR EVEN HIGH WINDS MAY SPREAD FARTHER EAST OUT
OF WY AND INTO NEB THIS EVENING AND PERHAPS OVERNIGHT. HOWEVER NONE
OF THE GUIDANCE FROM THE RUC...NAM...HRRR OR GFS INDICATED STRONG
WIND GUSTS SPREADING MUCH EAST OF HIGHWAY 61 OVERNIGHT.

19Z WINDS HOWEVER JUST SPIKED UP TO 55 KT AT THE LOWEST GATE AT
MEDICINE BOW AS THE JET MAX AND PV15 ANOMALY ARE GETTING NEARER.
THUS THERE IS POTENTIAL FOR A NOCTURNAL WIND EVENT ACROSS PARTS OF
WRN AND NCNTL NEB.

THE WARM AIR DRIVEN PCPN SHIELD ON RADAR IS MOVING VERY SLOWLY
EAST THIS AFTERNOON. MEANWHILE AN AREA OF WARP AROUND IS DEVELOPING
ACROSS WRN NEB. THIS ENTIRE AREA OF RAIN IS EXPECTED TO LIFT
NORTHEAST THIS EVENING BUT THE MODELS MAY BE TOO FAST. THUS IT IS
POSSIBLE WIDESPREAD RAIN MIGHT CONTINUE UNTIL 03Z THIS EVENING.

SATURDAY LOOKS DRY AND SEASONABLE. WINDS ALOFT WILL BE STRONG BUT
HIGH PRESSURE WILL BE CIRCULATING ACROSS THE FCST AREA PRESUMABLY
PREVENTING STRONG WINDS FROM MIXING DOWN TO THE SFC.

ANOTHER UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE WILL MOVE THROUGH SUNDAY. IT
APPEARS TO BE A COMBINATION OF WEAK WARM AIR ADVECTION AND UPPER
LEVEL SUPPORT FROM A CLOSED LOW ACROSS THE DAKOTA. NO INSTABILITY
IS INDICATED AT THE SFC OR ALOFT SO LOOKS LIKE JUST SHOWERS ARE
POSSIBLE AT THIS TIME. ISOLATED AFTERNOON SHOWERS ARE POSSIBLE
MONDAY AFTERNOON ALSO BUT THESE APPEAR AS DIURNALLY DRIVEN WITH A
WEAK UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE.

TUESDAY AND BEYOND...A WARMING TREND CONTINUES. WINDS ALOFT REMAIN
STRONG IN A MOSTLY ZONAL FLOW. THE ECM AND GFS ARE ADVERTISING A
STATIONARY FRONT WHICH WILL WOBBLE NORTH AND SOUTH ACROSS
KANSAS...NEBRASKA AND SRN SOUTH DAKOTA. THIS IS COULD BE A VERY
GOOD SET UP FOR OCCASIONAL THUNDERSTORM DEVELOPMENT...ESPECIALLY
AT NIGHT AS THE LOW LEVEL JET INCREASES. STILL NONE OF THE MODELS
ADVERTISE GOOD OR STRONG INSTABILITY UNTIL WEDNESDAY OR THURSDAY. MODEL
CONSENSUS SUGGESTED ISOLATED TSTMS MAINLY DURING THE AFTERNOON OR
AT NIGHT.

&&

.LBF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...NONE.
&&

SHORT TERM/EXTENDED...POWER/CDC
AVIATION...POWER

Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 27, 9:56 PM CST, 4 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE NORTH PLATTE NE
1056 PM CDT FRI APR 27 2012

NEZ004>010-022>029-035>038-056>059-069>071-094-290400-
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-
1056 PM CDT FRI APR 27 2012 /956 PM MDT FRI APR 27 2012/

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF WESTERN AND
NORTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT.

NO HAZARDOUS WEATHER IS EXPECTED AT THIS TIME.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SATURDAY THROUGH THURSDAY.

AN ACTIVE PATTERN IS EXPECTED TO DEVELOP NEXT WEEK WITH ISOLATED
THUNDERSTORMS POSSIBLE DURING THE AFTERNOON AND OVERNIGHT HOURS
STARTING TUESDAY AND CONTINUING THROUGH THE WEEK. AT THIS
TIME...WIDESPREAD SEVERE WEATHER IS NOT EXPECTED.

.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

MP

The radar

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

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Lincoln

When: April 27, 10:00 PM CST to April 28, 1:00 PM CST
Where: Lincoln County, 1.09 mi ENE of North Platte to 1.43 mi NNE of North Platte
Cause: Heavy Rain
Reported by: River/Stream Gage
Coordinates: 41.154, -100.760

Heavy rain fell upstream of the river gage along the North Platte River at North Platte (NPTN1). The river had already been experiencing high flows due to releases from Kingsley Dam on Lake McConaughy, and the increased runnoff caused the river to briefly rise above flood stage. The river crested at 6.07 feet at 6 a.m. CDT on April 28th.

What these are

Flood: Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Nebraska in 2012 Every state in 2012 This day in weather history Warnings in Nebraska, April 2012

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: 371215.