This was a fairly windy Thursday afternoon across South Central Nebraska, with several hours of sustained northerly speeds commonly 20-30 MPH and frequent gusts around 40 MPH. However, thanks largely to the development of scattered high-based rain showers and a few weak thunderstorms, which enhanced the ambient wind fields, several places experienced brief gusts of 50+ MPH.
Every event with a place to put it; 2 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
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.
This was a fairly windy Thursday afternoon across South Central Nebraska, with several hours of sustained northerly speeds commonly 20-30 MPH and frequent gusts around 40 MPH. However, thanks largely to the development of scattered high-based rain showers and a few weak thunderstorms, which enhanced the ambient wind fields, several places experienced brief gusts of 50+ MPH. This was especially the case within counties west of Highway 281, where a few unofficial personal weather stations even clocked severe-criteria gusts of 58+ MPH, including 60 MPH near Cozad and 62 MPH near Oxford. There were no known reports of damage from these winds. It is likely that without the presence of shallow convection, gusts in most places would have topped out no higher than 45 MPH. Wind profiles from the surface to the mid-levels were modestly strong and unidirectional, but ambient speeds at the 850 millibar level were no higher than 30-40 knots. In addition, the west-east surface pressure gradient at mid-afternoon across the state of Nebraska was not overly-supportive of severe winds, averaging only 7-9 millibars.
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 Apr 18, 2:09 PM CST, 10 minutes earlier.
Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Hastings NE 309 PM CDT Thu Apr 18 2019 ...Improving Wx Fri-Sat but then Lots of Uncertainty Heading into Next Wk due to Model Spread... .SHORT TERM...(This evening through Friday) Issued at 309 PM CDT Thu Apr 18 2019 Aloft: A moderately-amplified trof extended from MN-TX with ridges over the Ern/Wrn USA...per WV imagery/aircraft obs and dynamic tropopause analyses from the RAP. With the next trof approaching the W coast tomorrow...all these features will progress to the E. N flow over the CWA will gradually transition from cyclonic to anticyclonic tomorrow...with sig height rises of 80 m tonight and 70 m tomorrow. Surface: The CWA was in the cool sector. The polar front extended from the GtLks to TX. High pres was over the Wrn USA. This high will weaken and slide down the lee side of the Rckys into TX thru tomorrow...with its ridge cross in the CWA. Low pres will form over AB and move to Lk Winnipeg by 00Z/Sat. Downslope flow in its warm sector will result in warm frontogenesis from the low S thru Wrn NEB/KS. Rest of this aftn: P/cldy with sct shwrs. Some of the more energetic shwrs could produce small hail up to the size of dimes ...wind gusts of 45-55 mph...and a rumble or two of thunder. That will be the exception though. Tonight: Any diurnally-driven clds/shwrs will rapidly dissipate around sunset. Near normal chill. Winds subside with sunset. Fri: Sunny and very very nice. Near normal temps and light winds. .LONG TERM...(Friday night through Thursday) Issued at 309 PM CDT Thu Apr 18 2019 Aloft: The polar front jet will remain acrs Srn Canada thru next Thu. To the S of the jet the flow will be slower and less energetic. Despite the Nwd position of the jet...heights will only be slightly higher than normal. Ewd progression will cont. The Wrn ridge will cross the Plns Sat while the upr low currently off Srn CA will move into the Desert SW and weaken. The remnant trof will arrive here Sun AM. Meanwhile...a larger baroclinic trof will break off from the Westerlies will mv onshore into CA Sat and form a low. The last 2 runs of the GFS/GFS-FV3/UKMET/EC/CMC are tightly-clustered on this low drifting into the Desert SW Sun-Mon. Significant spread/incrsg uncertainty develops Tue as to what happens with this low. Does this low remain cut-off and slowly meander E into the Srn Plns? Does it lift NE acrs the Cntrl Plns? There are a lot more qstns than answers at this point. Surface: The warm front (discussed abv) will mv E acrs NEB/KS Sat while a cool front presses into the Nrn Plns as the Lk Winnipeg low mvs into Hudson Bay. This front will sag thru the CWA Sun and probably become quasi-stationary from TX-MO into the OH/TN Vlys Mon-Wed. Elongated high pres will then sink into the rgn. Temps: Significantly warmer than normal Sat with widespread low- mid 80s. Back to normal Sun...but probably cooler than normal Mon- Wed. Then possibly climbing back to normal or even abv normal next Thu. This is considerable uncertainty. If the front ends up closer to the CWA...then our fcst temps could be svrl degs too warm...espcly Mon-Tue. Precip: Very uncertain. The fcst is littered with POPs every period from Sun-Wed. Am afraid it's making those periods look wetter than they might actually be. By Sun aftn...dwpts in the 50s will hv advected into the CWA ahead of the cool front...with an EML and associated steep mid-lvl LR's (8 C/km) lying overtop. This will cap the atms in the warm sector...and may keep tstms from forming until early evng when the front is E and S of the CWA. After that...a chance for stratiform rain or shwrs...but again...very unsure of that. && .AVIATION...(For the 18Z KGRI/KEAR TAFS through 18Z Friday) Issued at 1223 PM CDT Thu Apr 18 2019 Significant Wx: G35 kt likely with lightning psbl. This afternoon: SCT-BKN VFR CU 6-7K ft with sct shwrs. Small hail psbl. Can't rule out an isolated lightning strike here and there. NNW winds 20-30 kt and G35-40...espcly near shwrs. Confidence: High Tonight: VFR. Diurnal shwrs and any cld debris will dissipate leaving SKC. Winds diminish to less than 10 kt from NW. Confidence: high Fri AM: VFR with no clds at or below 10K ft. Light NW winds under 10 kt. Confidence: High && .GID WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... NE...None. KS...None. && SHORT TERM...Kelley LONG TERM...Kelley AVIATION...Kelley
Hazardous Weather Outlook...UPDATED National Weather Service Hastings NE 314 PM CDT Thu Apr 18 2019 KSZ005>007-017>019-NEZ039>041-046>049-060>064-072>077-082>087- 191200- 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- 314 PM CDT Thu Apr 18 2019 This Hazardous Weather Outlook is for south central Nebraska and portions of north central Kansas. .DAY ONE...Rest of This Afternoon and Tonight. There is a slight chance for a very brief thunderstorm through 7 PM. Small hail up to the size of dimes and wind gusts of 45 to 55 mph will be possible. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...Friday through Wednesday. There is a slight chance for an isolated thunderstorm or two Sunday afternoon and evening...mainly south and east of the Tri- Cities. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... Spotter activation will not be needed through tonight. && More information may be obtained at the following web page: https://www.weather.gov/hastings Kelley
PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
1253 PM CDT THU APR 18 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
1249 PM HAIL 2 N KEARNEY 40.73N 99.08W
04/18/2019 E0.70 INCH BUFFALO NE PUBLIC
REPORT VIA MPING.
&&
THIESPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
239 PM CDT THU APR 18 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0217 PM NON-TSTM WND GST SMITH CENTER AIRPORT 39.76N 98.79W
04/18/2019 M51 MPH SMITH KS AWOS
&&
THIESPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
247 PM CDT THU APR 18 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0235 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 1 NNW OSBORNE 39.45N 98.70W
04/18/2019 M56 MPH OSBORNE KS MESONET
KANSAS MESONET STATION AT OSBORNE, KS.
&&
THIESPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
251 PM CDT THU APR 18 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0221 PM TSTM WND GST 5 NNW OXFORD 40.31N 99.67W
04/18/2019 M53 MPH FURNAS NE MESONET
&&
THIESPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
253 PM CDT THU APR 18 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0213 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 1 NNE COZAD 40.87N 99.98W
04/18/2019 M51 MPH DAWSON NE MESONET
&&
THIESPRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
310 PM CDT THU APR 18 2019
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0234 PM NON-TSTM WND GST 2 N GLEN ELDER 39.53N 98.30W
04/18/2019 M53 MPH MITCHELL KS MESONET
&&
THIESThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A 60 MPH wind gusts was measured by a mesonet station located 1 mile north-northeast of Cozad.
A 62 MPH wind gusts was measured by a mesonet station located 1 mile north of Oxford.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Nebraska in 2019Every state in 2019This day in weather historyWarnings in Nebraska, April 2019
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: 817759, 817758.