Thunderstorm Wind — Richardson, Nebraska

2024-10-30 · near Falls City, Richardson, Nebraska

Event narrative

A swath of destructive straight line winds impacted portions of southeast Richardson County including Falls City. The Falls City ASOS measured a 91 miles per hour wind gust at 1:09 pm CDT, and again at 1:12 pm CDT. The ASOS lost power and stopped transmitting data at 1:15 pm CDT. Widespread tree damage was reported across Falls City with snow plows assisting in the removal of tree debris. Trees went through the roofs of two homes, and an additional house had a wall blown down as reported by law enforcement. A large factory in town lost approximately 3 to 4 thousand square feet of its roof. Powerlines were down across the southeast portion of the county, debris was strewn out across fields, and a school bus was reported to have been moved by the wind.

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 → (40.0533, -95.6111)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1219582. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.