Hail — Scotts Bluff, Nebraska

2023-06-23 · near Scottsbluff, Scotts Bluff, Nebraska

Event narrative

Wind-driven baseball sized hail was reported in the city of Scottsbluff. Numerous reports of damaged vehicles.

Wider weather episode

The most notable storm of the day was an intense, long-lived, cyclic tornadic supercell which significantly impacted Scotts Bluff and Morrill Counties during the early evening hours. This storm originated in the central Laramie Range of Wyoming approximately 50 miles to the west around 3 to 4 hours prior to reaching western Nebraska, producing several confirmed tornadoes along its path. Environmental conditions across Scotts Bluff County continued to support the potential for tornadoes, with abundant moisture pooling in the Platte River Valley and favorable east-to-southeast winds near the surface with a strong southwesterly jet stream aloft. The supercell produced 7 additional confirmed tornadoes (6 in Scotts Bluff County and 1 in Morrill County), most notably including an EF-2 tornado which tracked approximately 1-3 miles ENE of Gering between 7:38 PM and 7:45 PM MDT. A Tornado Emergency was in effect for Gering and Scottsbluff from 7:31 PM until 8:00 PM MDT, which was the first ever issuance of this product from the NWS in Cheyenne. Numerous instances of baseball to softball sized hail occurred across Scotts Bluff County including the city of Scottsbluff. A second intense supercell developed and tracked across Scotts Bluff County in the wake of the first tornadic storm, producing a second swath of very large (baseball sized) hail over the same area. In addition to this primary focus area for intense storms, other isolated storms also brought quarter sized hail, 60 MPH wind gusts to portions of the western Nebraska Panhandle.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.8700, -103.6600)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1098957. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.