Storm Events Database

Storm Events Database

Event Details

Event Hail
Magnitude 1.00 in.
State NEBRASKA
County/Area HOWARD
WFO GID
Begin Date 05/27/2012 17:42:00 CST-6
Begin Range 3
Begin Azimuth E
Begin Location FARWELL
Begin Lat/Lon 41.22/-98.57
End Date 05/27/2012 17:42:00 CST-6
Deaths Direct/Indirect 0/0 (fatality details below, when available...)
Injuries Direct/Indirect 0/0
Property Damage 0.00K
Crop Damage 0.00K
Episode Narrative Sunday of Memorial Day weekend featured a prolonged afternoon and evening outbreak of severe thunderstorms primarily within the eastern two-thirds of South Central Nebraska. In addition to dozens of reports of large hail and damaging winds over the course of seven hours between 4-11 PM CDT, there was one brief EF0 tornado reported by storm chasers in a rural area between Greeley and Wolbach around 530 PM CDT with no damage reported. Hail to at least golf ball size fell in several locations, including in or near Greeley, Geneva, Franklin, Riverton, Blue Hill and along Interstate 80 in far eastern York County. In east central Greeley County, at least one home sustained broken windows. Damaging winds estimated from 60 to at least 70 MPH overturned a number of irrigation pivots, destroyed grain bins and downed trees, with some of this wind damage reported in or near Wood River, Blue Hill and Fairfield. Rainfall-wise, several counties received 1-3 inches, with a few of the highest known measured amounts including 2.90 inches southeast of Palmer and 2.88 inches north of Osceola. Although flooding was not widespread, rainfall of around 2.60 inches in the Wood River area resulted in water over a county road.

The primary zone of severe storms was associated with a slow-moving cold front and focused roughly 20 miles either side of the Highway 281 corridor between the Kansas border and the Greeley area. However, a smaller, separate cluster of severe storms also developed east of the frontal zone, affecting counties such as Thayer, Fillmore and eastern York. In both of these areas, the initiation of severe storms occurred between 4-6 PM CDT. During these first few hours, one of the strongest, most discrete supercells of the day produced the brief tornado and large hail in Greeley County before exiting the local area into Boone County. Between 6-8 PM CDT, a mix of brief supercell and quasi-linear multicell storm structures trained along the aforementioned north-south corridor near Highway 281. Then between 8-11 PM CDT, this initially narrow zone of storms expanded eastward as northern storms weakened and southern storms became more dominant. It was during this time frame that a few intense storms passed along a corridor from Franklin to Clay Counties, including a short bowing segment that resulted in several wind damage reports. Finally by 11 PM CDT, storm intensity trended downward and no additional severe weather was reported despite activity lingering well past midnight mainly south of Interstate 80 and east of Highway 281.

This severe weather event was anticipated several days in advance, and featured a Moderate Risk Day 1 Convective Outlook from the Storm Prediction Center. The primary forcing mechanism aloft was a strong shortwave pushing northeast out of Colorado, along the southeast periphery of a deep mid-level low centered in Montana. At the surface, the aforementioned slow-moving cold front served as the primary low-level trigger, as it aligned from northwest Kansas to northeast Nebraska at mid-afternoon. As this strong upper forcing intercepted the cold front and severe storms erupted, mesoscale convective parameters featured between 1000-2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and impressive 0-6 kilometer vertical wind shear of 50-70 knots. A potentially more significant tornado threat was likely kept in check by somewhat high cloud bases, resulting from surface temperature-dewpoint spreads of 20-30F early in the event.
Event Narrative


All events for this episode:

Location County/Zone St. Date Time T.Z. Type Mag Dth Inj PrD CrD
Totals: 0 0 1.075M 8.700M
GREELEY GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 15:13 CST-6 Hail 0.75 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
SPALDING GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 15:27 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
SPALDING GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 15:33 CST-6 Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 25.00K 250.00K
ASHTON SHERMAN CO. NE 05/27/2012 15:49 CST-6 Hail 0.75 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
LOUP CITY SHERMAN CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:05 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
HEBRON THAYER CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:15 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
HEBRON THAYER CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:15 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
RAVENNA BUFFALO CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:19 CST-6 Hail 0.75 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
HEBRON THAYER CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:20 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
GREELEY GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:23 CST-6 Tornado EF0 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
ASHTON SHERMAN CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:25 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
GREELEY GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:29 CST-6 Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 15.00K 250.00K
GREELEY GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:30 CST-6 Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 15.00K 250.00K
GREELEY GREELEY CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:30 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 52 kts. EG 0 0 25.00K 250.00K
BRUNING THAYER CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:39 CST-6 Hail 1.25 in. 0 0 15.00K 150.00K
OHIOWA FILLMORE CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:46 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
MILLIGAN FILLMORE CO. NE 05/27/2012 16:57 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
GENEVA FILLMORE CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:00 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
CARLETON THAYER CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:00 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
WOOD RIVER HALL CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:06 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
GENEVA FILLMORE CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:15 CST-6 Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 75.00K 500.00K
WACO YORK CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:18 CST-6 Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 75.00K 500.00K
RIVERTON FRANKLIN CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:25 CST-6 Hail 1.50 in. 0 0 25.00K 400.00K
GIBBON BUFFALO CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:33 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
INAVALE WEBSTER CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:37 CST-6 Hail 1.50 in. 0 0 25.00K 400.00K
RIVERTON FRANKLIN CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:38 CST-6 Hail 2.00 in. 0 0 50.00K 1.500M
FARWELL HOWARD CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:42 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
FRANKLIN FRANKLIN CO. NE 05/27/2012 17:55 CST-6 Hail 2.00 in. 0 0 75.00K 1.000M
WOOD RIVER HALL CO. NE 05/27/2012 18:00 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 61 kts. EG 0 0 350.00K 250.00K
BLOOMINGTON FRANKLIN CO. NE 05/27/2012 18:12 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
GRAND IS HALL CO. NE 05/27/2012 18:25 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
BLADEN WEBSTER CO. NE 05/27/2012 19:49 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 45.00K 500.00K
BLADEN WEBSTER CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:13 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 52 kts. EG 0 0 10.00K 0.00K
OSCEOLA POLK CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:15 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 52 kts. EG 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
BLADEN WEBSTER CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:15 CST-6 Hail 1.50 in. 0 0 25.00K 500.00K
OSCEOLA POLK CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:20 CST-6 Hail 1.50 in. 0 0 50.00K 500.00K
AYR ADAMS CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:25 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
AYR ADAMS CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:25 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 61 kts. EG 0 0 25.00K 0.00K
BLUE HILL WEBSTER CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:30 CST-6 Hail 1.75 in. 0 0 25.00K 500.00K
HASTINGS ADAMS CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:35 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
UPLAND FRANKLIN CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:45 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 61 kts. EG 0 0 50.00K 0.00K
CAMPBELL FRANKLIN CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:45 CST-6 Hail 1.50 in. 0 0 25.00K 1.000M
FAIRFIELD CLAY CO. NE 05/27/2012 20:46 CST-6 Thunderstorm Wind 61 kts. EG 0 0 50.00K 0.00K
CARLETON THAYER CO. NE 05/27/2012 21:17 CST-6 Hail 1.00 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
HASTINGS ADAMS CO. NE 05/27/2012 21:43 CST-6 Hail 0.88 in. 0 0 0.00K 0.00K
Totals: 0 0 1.075M 8.700M