High Wind — Furnas, Nebraska

2025-05-14 · Furnas, Nebraska

Event narrative

The combination of a passing synoptic cold front and an outflow boundary from convection well to the north produced wind gusts near 60 MPH at times. A storm chaser reported downed tree limbs in Cambridge. These wind gusts along with the dry conditions across the area resulted in widespread blowing dust, at times dropping visibility to near zero.

Wider weather episode

Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms formed in the early evening hours across a small part of central Nebraska along the tail end (i.e. south end) of a line of thunderstorms which extended north. Hail and thunderstorm wind reports were confined to Valley county, including ping pong size hail. Though the actual thunderstorms only impacted a small area, a byproduct of the thunderstorms were the strong outflow winds of 50 to 60 mph to the south across Dawson, Gosper, Phelps, Furnas and Harlan counties. Conditions were dry to start, thanks to the drought-laden spring, and when the strong wind rolled over freshly tilled fields, the result was blowing dust. In some cases, a wall of dust reduced visibility to near zero in open country.

The weather map depicted a strongly negatively tilted upper-level nosing its way into western Nebraska. As the trough advanced, a deep surface low (992mb) formed in southwest Nebraska and moved north northeast into northern Nebraska. A surge of warm air ahead of the low pressure pushed temperatures to 90 degrees in south central Nebraska. Low-level moisture did push north, but surface dewpoints could only manage around 60 degrees by late afternoon. While the system was dynamic in nature, effective wind shear in south central Nebraska was only near 30 knots. Deep moisture convergence was centered in north central Nebraska as slightly warmer air surging north in the mid-levels helped to cap thunderstorms developing south of Nebraska Highway 92. The result was only a few locations northwest of Grand Island experienced severe weather before outflow winds became dominant well south of the thunderstorms.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1269956. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.