Thunderstorm Wind — Saunders, Nebraska

2025-07-15 · near Wahoo, Saunders, Nebraska

Event narrative

Mesonet measured wind gust of 65 mph along the outflow boundary of a thunderstorm.

Wider weather episode

On July 15, 2025, a surface boundary draped across west-central Nebraska into western South Dakota served as the focus for afternoon storm development, as a vorticity maximum and mid-level disturbance pushed into the central and northern Plains. Initial discrete severe thunderstorms developed in north-central Nebraska before merging into a larger mesoscale convective complex (MCC). This complex tracked into northeast Nebraska during the evening hours and then dove southeast across eastern Nebraska and southwest Iowa through the late evening.

As the storms first entered northeast Nebraska, severe weather reports were limited, though a 55 mph wind gust was measured south of Norfolk at 7:52 PM CST. Farther southeast, an outflow boundary surged ahead of the main complex, producing numerous damaging wind gusts of 58'68 mph across east-central and southeast Nebraska. Notable damage included 8-inch tree limbs down in northwest Omaha and downed power lines in Greenwood, Nebraska. The storms gradually weakened as they progressed into southeast Nebraska and southern Iowa overnight.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.1900, -96.6300)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1280994. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.