Thunderstorm Wind — Douglas, Nebraska

2024-07-31 · near Waterloo, Douglas, Nebraska

Event narrative

A line of intense thunderstorms swept across the entirety of Douglas County, impacting the largest metropolitan area in the Omaha NWS County Warning Area. As these storms entered the western part of the county, 80 miles per hour wind gusts were likely being produced, with a 76 miles per hour wind gust measured at the Omaha National Weather Service, and a 75 miles per hour wind gust measured by a mesonet station in west Millard. As the storms moved east across the county, the winds continued to intensify with widespread significant damage to trees, powerlines, and structures. In Waterloo, a roof was blown off of a commercial building, and in Midtown, a storefront awning and front faade was completely destroyed. Wind gusts in the area were measured as high as 90 miles per hour, both by the Eppley Airfield ASOS and a mesonet station in Bennington. As such, straight line winds were estimated to be as high as 100 miles per hour with these storms as they moved through the Omaha metro. Power outages lasted for a week in some areas of the county, with OPPD estimated approximately 20 million dollars in damage in the county. Total damages from these storms are estimated to be 35 million in Douglas county alone.

Wider weather episode

The prevailing upper-level pattern for the end of July featured a trough over the Pacific Northwest, favoring southwesterly flow over the central Great Plains. Two troughs ejected out into the north-central CONUS during this episode. The first brought two back to back nights of severe weather across portions of northeast Nebraska the night of the 28th and the 29th. The second trough moved out into the central Plains and brought the synoptic scale forcing for a historic severe wind event that impacted both Lincoln and Omaha metropolitan areas. Wind gusts as high as 100 miles per hour extended from Lancaster County northeast to the Nebraska-Iowa border, leaving behind a large swath of significant tree, powerline and structural damage. Power outages from this storm lasted for up to a week in some locations, particularly in Omaha.

This episode also featured several afternoons of excessive heat for portions of southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa. A few instances of 110 degree heat indices were observed in a few southwest Iowa counties the afternoon of the 29th, with even more widespread excessive heat the afternoon of the 31st across much of the forecast area south of Interstate 80. Peak heat indices in this region topped out between 110 and 115 degrees before afternoon convection cooled temperatures back down.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.2410, -96.3310)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1206772. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.