Thunderstorm Wind — Richardson, Nebraska

2024-10-30 · near Preston, Richardson, Nebraska

Event narrative

Emergency management reported 6 train cars on a double-stacked train that were leaning from a tree that had fallen on them. Time was estimated by radar.

Wider weather episode

On the morning of October 30th, a longwave trough was situated over the Rockies, slowly pivoting east into the Great Plains. At the surface, a near stationary frontal zone extended from Minneapolis, southeast into the Texas and Oklahoma Panhandles. This brought the frontal zone through portions of southwest Iowa and southeast Nebraska. Scattered thunderstorms developed across north-central Kansas by 9:00am, moving northeast parallel to the surface front boundary. Through the late morning and early afternoon hours, these thunderstorms moved into southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa from Kansas while additional thunderstorms developed over these same area. Widespread heavy rain and lightning was observed, with isolated instances of severe hail east of Lincoln and south of Omaha. Just after 12 pm CDT, a bowing line segment developed in southeast Nebraska south of Highway 2. This line of storms brought destructive winds to the Falls City area, with a recorded wind gust of 90 mph at the Falls City ASOS, and widespread tree and structural damage reported in the town itself.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (40.0134, -95.5724)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1219579. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.