Hail — Howard, Nebraska

2012-05-04 · near St Paul, Howard, Nebraska

Event narrative

Hail ranging from the size of quarters to at least the size of baseballs was reported in and around St. Paul. There were numerous reports of vehicle damage, along with window, siding, and gutter damage to homes. A local greenhouse had 21 roof panels destroyed.

Wider weather episode

For the fourth consecutive day, severe thunderstorms affected parts of South Central Nebraska, this time targeting northwest portions of the 24-county area with a fairly significant Friday evening hail event primarily impacting Valley, Greeley, Howard and Sherman Counties. There were nearly two dozen reports of large hail ranging from quarter to at least baseball size. Most of this large hail affected rural areas, but the community of St. Paul took a direct hit as a large southward-tracking supercell pounded parts of town for at least 20-30 minutes with hail to at least baseball size. Along with extensive damage to homes and vehicles, a local greenhouse had 21 roof panels destroyed. Although no serious injuries were reported, two teenage girls sheltered in a car on the north side of St. Paul as it was battered by large hail, with one girl sustaining several small cuts when the back window shattered. Elsewhere across the area, golf ball size hail was reported in several places including near Scotia, North Loup and Pleasanton. Although no tornadoes or damaging winds were reported, one storm featured strong rotation on radar across southwestern Sherman and far north central Buffalo Counties around 10 PM CDT. Rainfall amounts under the most intense storms generally ranged from 1-2 inches, with unofficial reports from the St. Paul area of localized pockets over 2.50 inches.

The first severe thunderstorms of the evening within the local area started sagging into extreme northern portions of Valley and Greeley Counties between 6 PM and 730 PM CDT, evolving southward from severe storms already ongoing just to the north in Garfield and Wheeler Counties. Between 730-10 PM CDT, a large south-southeast moving supercell became the most dominant storm of the event as it tracked along the Valley/Greeley County line and into Howard County, battering St. Paul with destructive hail before abruptly dissipating before reaching Grand Island. As this primary supercell matured, a new cluster of multicell and splitting supercell storms erupted over Valley and Sherman Counties between 830-930 PM CDT, with one of these storms eventually making it as far south as the Pleasanton area before dissipating. The last severe hail storm of the night affected areas near the Sherman/Howard County line between 1045-1130 PM before rapidly weakening. Interestingly, all severe storms that tried moving south into the Interstate 80 corridor dissipated before getting there. Aloft, synoptic scale forcing for this event was rather weak, with only subtle shortwave energy passing through quasi-zonal flow aloft, well-downstream from a larger mid level trough over the Pacific Northwest. However, at the surface, a quasi-stationary east-west oriented front draped across northern Nebraska provided the focus for severe storm development, especially as it started pushing south as an outflow boundary during the evening. Around the time the St. Paul supercell first developed, mesoscale parameters featured around 2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and around 40 knots of 0-6 kilometer vertical wind shear.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.2601, -98.4921)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 376324. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.