Damaging Winds in Nebraska, May 30, 2016

Name: Damaging Winds in Nebraska, May 30, 2016
Start: 2016-05-30T19:25
End: 2016-05-30T22:13
Location: Nebraska

May 30, 2016 · NWS GID · 2 events in 2 counties and zones

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: $5,000
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 2

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.

Thunderstorms produced strong, but mostly sub-severe winds on this Monday evening. They formed over southwest Nebraska, and with a combined cold pool, moved east as a squall line across all of south central Nebraska. This line moved into the Highway 283 corridor just after 7 p.m. CST and exited the Highway 81 corridor just after midnight CST, crossing the region in roughly five hours. Winds remained below 50 mph at most locations, but there were a couple spots that gusted to 50 mph, including near the towns of Elwood, in Gosper County, and Henderson in York County. Two locations did report severe winds. The highest was a measured gust of 67 mph along the Adams-Clay County line, east of Hastings. The other was an estimated gust of 60 mph over western Furnas County.

This squall line occurred in the warm sector of a low pressure system over the Dakota's. By early evening, the associated cold front was just entering the Nebraska Panhandle, and extended further southwest through Wyoming into Utah and Nevada. The original storms initiated along the lee-side trough. In the upper-levels, a ridge was long the West Coast, anchored by a subtropical high over the eastern Pacific. Downstream, fairly weak, zonal flow extended from the Northern Rockies east to New England. A shortwave trough was over Montana and Wyoming. By the time the squall line affected the region, temperatures had cooled into the 70s, with dewpoints in the middle 50s to around 60. Despite a cooling boundary layer, and the storms moving into an area of poor mid-level lapse rates, MLCAPE was still between 1000 and 2000 J/kg. Weak tropospheric winds and a unidirectional wind profile resulted in lower deep layer shear of approximately 15 to 20 knots. The squall line appeared to be outflow dominant, with upshear-tilted updrafts.

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 May 30, 6:18 PM CST, 1 hour 7 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, May 30, 6:18 PM CST, 1 hour 7 minutes before

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Hastings NE
718 PM CDT MON MAY 30 2016

.SHORT TERM...(This evening through Tuesday)
Issued at 323 PM CDT Mon May 30 2016

Aloft: Meteorological summer begins Wed and the 500 mb charts
from 00Z and 12Z show it. The main belt of Westerlies was over the
Nrn USA and it was weak. The strongest jet streak was over the Pac
NW associated with a shortwave trof. A small associated low has
developed along the MT/AB border. This low will advance across the
Dakotas tomorrow with the trof crossing the Cntrl Plains Tue
night.

Surface: As is typical of summer...most sfc features are weak and
poorly defined. Occluded/weak low pres was over Srn Sask with a
subtle warm front from SD-IA. A fairly decent cool front was
making its way thru the Pac NW/Nrn Rockies. Cyclogenesis will
occur over WY/SD today with a well-defined triple pt low taking
over and lifting to near FAR by 12Z/Tue. Meanwhile...the cool
front will surge S and cross the fcst area tonight. Weak high pres
will build in tomorrow.

Now: Svr Tstm Watch #232 is in effect until 10 pm. It will be svrl
hrs before tstms move into the fcst area. So Memorial Day
activities thru early evening should be fine. Suggest everyone
from Beaver City-Lexington-Ord keep an eye to the W after 8 pm.

Observed 12Z soundings show fairly dry air over the region in the
low-lvls...with dwpts in the mid-upr 50s. Combined with mid-lvl
lapse rates around 7.5 C/km and temps around 80F...this has
resulted in MLCAPE around 1500 J/kg. 0-6 km shear is around 25
kts.

Tstm development should be most widespread over the Panhandle/Wrn
Neb and along the CO/KS border before 8 pm. Given the dry sub-
cloud layer...these storms should rapidly form a common cold pool
and accelerate E as one or more lines. While hail up to the size
of 1.5 inches will be possible early...believe the main threat
will be winds of 50-60 mph. This line should cross much if not all
of the fcst area from W-E between 10 pm and 4 am. The back edge
could linger S and E of the Tri-Cities thru dawn...but with
minimal severe threat expected after midnight.

Tomorrow: could see a little tstm activity linger into the morning
hrs...S and E of the Tri-Cities. Otherwise...decreasing clouds and
cooler.

.LONG TERM...(Tuesday night through Monday)
Issued at 323 PM CDT Mon May 30 2016

Aloft: WNW flow Wed-Fri will become NW and the longwaves amplify.
Significant adjustments upstream over the Pac will send heights
rising over the Wrn USA as a +2 standard deviation ridge/high
builds. This ridge is then fcst to deamplify and overtake the
Plains the middle of next week per the EC and N American ensemble
means.

Surface: A stronger cool front will move thru Tue night with high
pres overtaking the region Wed. This high will depart to the E and
S Thu-Fri. The next Pac cool front will be making its way thru Wrn
Canada and the Nrn Rockies. This weak front is fcst to move thru
here Fri night-Sat followed by weak high pres Sun-Mon.

A few daily details...

Tue night: another passage of a cool front. No rain expected.

Wed: Wonderfully pleasant. Low humidity and winds.

Thu: Similar but a little warmer. Close to 80F.

Fri: A little warmer yet as the thermal ridge pokes NE across the
Cntrl Plains ahead of the approaching cool front. The 06Z/12Z GFS
runs were the most aggressive developing scattered tstms while the
00Z/12Z EC suggest maybe a lone tstm or two. The GFS is as much as
10F higher with its dwpts than the EC. There will be a lot of tstm
activity processing Gulf moisture over the Srn/Gulf Coast States.
Therefore...am not buying the GFS runs. The 00Z EC ensemble QPF
probabilities support this thinking with barely a 10% prob for
.10" in the 24 hr period from 7 am Fri - 7 am Sat. So POPs in the
fcst were clipped to only 20%.

Sat-Mon: Looks dry for now and very nice with highs around 80 and
lows 55-59F.

&&

.AVIATION...(For the 00Z KGRI/KEAR TAFS through 00Z Tuesday evening)
Issued at 715 PM CDT Mon May 30 2016

The big aviation concern will center around the line of
thunderstorms that will track east across the area this evening.
These storms will near KEAR around 9 pm and KGRI around 10 pm.
Heavy rain and strong winds are likely as these storms roll
through. Can not rule out winds gusts of 50 to 70 mph with these
storms. Keep up to date with the latest severe thunderstorm
warnings as this line presses east.

&&

.GID Watches/Warnings/Advisories...
NE...None.
KS...None.
&&

SHORT TERM...Halblaub
LONG TERM...Halblaub
AVIATION...Wesely

Hazardous weather outlook, May 30, 6:28 PM CST, 57 minutes before

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
728 PM CDT MON MAY 30 2016

KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087-
311230-
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-
728 PM CDT MON MAY 30 2016

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

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT.

A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL TRACK EAST ACROSS THE FORECAST AREA
THIS EVENING. THE PRIMARY HAZARD WILL BE STRONG STRAIGHT LINE WIND
GUSTS OF 50 TO 70 MPH. WHILE A LESSER THREAT...HAIL UP TO 1.5
INCHES IN DIAMETER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE WITH THESE STORMS EARLY
ON...PRIMARILY BEFORE 10 PM.

A FLOOD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FOR MUCH OF CLAY COUNTY. PLEASE
REFER TO THE LATEST FLOOD STATEMENT FOR DETAILS.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY.

THUNDERSTORM CHANCES CONTINUE INTO TUESDAY ACROSS THE AREA AND
WILL COME TO AN END TUESDAY EVENING. NO STRONG OR SEVERE STORMS
ARE EXPECTED. THE NEXT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE FRIDAY
NIGHT...FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTH CENTRAL NEBRASKA.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTERS AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PERSONNEL SHOULD PLAN ON SEVERE
WEATHER OPERATIONS THIS EVENING. PLEASE RELAY ALL REPORTS OF WIND
DAMAGE AND HAIL TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HASTINGS.

&&

MORE INFORMATION MAY BE OBTAINED AT THE FOLLOWING WEB PAGE:
 HTTP://WWW.WEATHER.GOV/HASTINGS

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:24 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.

Thunderstorm Wind, Furnas

When: May 30, 7:25 PM CST
Where: Furnas County, 2 mi E of Cambridge
Measured: 52 kt (60 mph) estimated gust
Reported by: Storm Chaser
Coordinates: 40.280, -100.132

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind, Clay

When: May 30, 10:13 PM CST
Where: Clay County, 2 mi W of Inland
Measured: 58 kt (67 mph) measured gust
Property damage: $5,000
Reported by: Emergency Manager
Coordinates: 40.600, -98.258

What these are

Thunderstorm Wind: Winds from a thunderstorm of 50 knots (58 mph) or more, or lower winds that caused damage or casualties. Measured gusts are marked MG, estimated EG.

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

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Nebraska in 2016 Every state in 2016 This day in weather history Warnings in Nebraska, May 2016

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: 627370, 627371.