Thunderstorm Wind in Webster County, Nebraska

Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in downed tree limbs across town, some falling onto power lines and causing power outages. A resident just southeast of town reported pivot and grain bin damage near their location in addition to tree damage.

Line of thunderstorms brings damaging straight line wind gusts to areas along the Kansas, Nebraska state line during the late evening of May 1st into the very early morning hours of May 2nd. Thunderstorms initially developed during the early evening hours of May 1st in northeast Colorado, along and north of a warm front. This activity grew upscale into a forward propagating mesoscale convective system (MCS) over the next couple of hours, thanks in large part to an increasing low level jet (LLJ). The LLJ was effective at transporting moderate instability (MUCAPE around 2000 J/kg) atop the warm front, where veering winds with height also led to strong effective wind shear. The result was a line of thunderstorms that moved WSW to ENE across north central Kansas and into far southern Nebraska. The northern end of the line produced damaging straight line wind gusts of 60 to 70 MPH, mainly between 11PM and 1AM. Impacts were fairly typical of damaging wind events with several reports of downed tree limbs and sporadic power outages and overturned pivots. Additional thunderstorms continued for a few more hours overnight, but this activity remained sub-severe.