This Monday marked the first true very windy day of the fall season across South Central Nebraska, as (mainly) the daylight hours featured sustained northwesterly winds commonly 25-35 MPH, frequent gusts of 40-55 MPH and a few isolated High Wind Warning criteria gusts of 58+ MPH (all severe gusts were within the western half of the area). Actually, the first warning-level gust of this event…
Every event with a place to put it; 5 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 Monday marked the first true very windy day of the fall season across South Central Nebraska, as (mainly) the daylight hours featured sustained northwesterly winds commonly 25-35 MPH, frequent gusts of 40-55 MPH and a few isolated High Wind Warning criteria gusts of 58+ MPH (all severe gusts were within the western half of the area). Actually, the first warning-level gust of this event occurred back on the evening of the 20th, as a mesonet near Cambridge clocked 61 MPH with the initial surge of westerly winds wrapping around the southwest side of a 998 millibar surface low centered over the central NE-SD border. Over the course of the night, no additional severe-criteria gusts were noted, but strong winds nonetheless overspread the entire local area as the aforementioned surface low pressure system drifted to north central IA by sunrise, deepening to 992 millibars along the way. During the daytime hours, the combination of deepening diurnal mixing and a further intensification of the parent low pressure system to around 986 millibars (over southern MN) instigated the main round of intense winds, including an official peak gust of 58 MPH at Ord airport and unofficial mesonet gusts of 63 MPH near Cambridge, 61 MPH near Cozad and 59 MPH near Oxford. In the Tri Cities, official airport peak gusts reached 52-53 MPH. At its strongest, the west-to-east surface pressure gradient across the state of Nebraska reached a formidable 20 millibars, ranging from 994 in the far northeast to 1014 in the western Panhandle.
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 20, 6:12 PM CST, 1 hour 18 minutes earlier.
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</html>The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
5 high wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A wind gust of 61 was measured by a mesonet station located 2 miles north-northeast of Cambridge.
A wind gust of 61 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located 1 mile north-northeast of Cozad.
A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located 1 mile north of Oxford.
A wind gust of 63 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located 2 miles north-northeast of Cambridge.
A wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by the Ord Airport ASOS.
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, October 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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 861866, 861865, 851912, 851913, 851914.