Hail — Clay, Nebraska

2023-05-06 · near Edgar, Clay, Nebraska

Event narrative

Hail up to the size of tennis balls was reported in Edgar.

Wider weather episode

Long-track, elevated supercell brings swath of large hail to portions of south central Nebraska during the evening of May 6th with additional elevated storms and large hail over far northern portions of the area late overnight. The main story with this event was a lone, elevated supercell, that cycled several times to produce a nearly continuous swath of large hail from around the Elwood, NE area ESE to around the Hebron, NE area. This supercell initially developed just W of the CWA during the late afternoon hours, well N of the primary outflow boundary that was placed just S of the NE/KS state line, and moved into Gosper Co. around 1800CDT. Despite stable conditions at/near the surface, lingering moderate elevated instability and strong effective shear enabled this supercell to continue ESE through the remainder of the evening. The largest hail reported within this swath was tennis ball size in northern Nuckolls Co. between 2000-2100CDT. The supercell exited Thayer Co. to the E shortly before 2200CDT. This portion of the severe episode was largely unexpected as this area was not included in any of the daytime SPC Day 1 Convective Outlooks.

What was more accurately anticipated was a band of elevated convection during the late overnight and early morning hours of May 6th into May 7th over far N portions of the CWA. These storms affected mainly Valley Co. between 0300-0400CDT and produced a few instances of quarter to ping pong ball size hail.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.3700, -97.9700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1096343. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.