Lightning in Adams County, Nebraska

Investigators with the Nebraska State Fire Marshal's Office determined that lightning was the cause of a very large fire that completely destroyed the Cooperative Producers Inc. Dry Fertilizer Facility. This facility opened in July 2018, and was located just east of the intersection of Highway 6 and Showboat Road. Hastings Rural Fire District, along with firefighters from 4 other fire districts, helped contain the fire. The fire was contained by 3 AM CDT, but firefighters were on scene to address hotspots well into Friday. Two injuries were reported as a result of the fire, both injured parties were treated and released at a local hospital within hours of the fire. The injured parties were semi drivers on site at the time of the fire. Damage is estimated to be at least $5 million worth of product at the plant with a facility cost of $14 million.

Several reports of severe hail occurred from near Harlan County Lake to Aurora on this Thursday. A fairly large shield of rain, with a few embedded thunderstorms, moved northeast across south central Nebraska from late morning through mid-afternoon. Behind this area of rain, numerous scattered, poorly-organized thunderstorms moved in from Kansas. Between 5 and 7 PM CST, mostly low-end severe hail occurred at various locations from near Alma northeastward to Aurora. The one exception was golf ball size hail that fell a few miles north of Hampton, in Hamilton county.

These storms were elevated as the area was on the cold side of the low pressure system that moved through on the 22nd. By the time these severe thunderstorms occurred, the low was exiting the Great Lakes. The cold front extended southwest, across Kansas, to another low pressure system over Colorado and New Mexico. High pressure was over Nebraska. The flow aloft was highly-amplified with southwest flow over the central Plains a longwave trough and upper low were over the Western U.S., and a ridge was over the East. Surface temperatures and dewpoints were in the 50s. Mid-level lapse rates were 6.5-7.0 C/km, and MUCAPE was between 500 and 1000 J/kg. Effective deep layer shear was 60-70 kt.