July 11, 2010: Damaging Winds Strike Western Dawson County

Sunday, July 11, 2010, brought isolated severe thunderstorms to a small part of south central Nebraska for
the second consecutive evening, as a weak upper level disturbance interacted with an unstable airmass. Western Dawson County again took the brunt of this activity, as an isolated supercell storm moved in from Lincoln and Custer Counties.

The following photographs of the storm were taken by Trevor Tetley. The first five pictures depict a shelf cloud, which is associated with the storm's gust front. The presence of a shelf cloud is indicative of strong straight line winds within a storm. A small wall cloud is shown in the lower right image.

Severe Weather:
Here are a few "highlights" of the event, based on reports received from storm spotters and local law enforcement/emergency management:

94 MPH wind gust measured by a trained storm spotter's home weather station 7 miles north-northwest of Gothenburg at 729 PM, with reports of tree limbs down and corn flattened.
Quarter-sized hail 6 miles west-southwest of Lexington at 811 PM.

The radar image below depicts reflectivity from the NWS Hastings WSR-88D radar at 731 PM, just as the supercell storm was entering far northwestern Dawson County. The "curled out" shape just north of Gothenburg is an indicator of the very strong wind that accompanied this storm.

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...SUMMARY
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
904 PM CDT SUN JUL 11 2010

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0729 PM     TSTM WND GST   7 NNW GOTHENBURG        41.02N 100.21W
07/11/2010 M94.00 MPH       DAWSON             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER
            94MPH WIND GUSTS MEASURED BY 2 ANEMOMETERS. TREE LIMBS
            DOWN, POWER OUT, CORN FLATTENED.

0730 PM     TSTM WND GST  1 N GOTHENBURG          40.94N 100.16W
07/11/2010 E50.00 MPH       DAWSON             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER
            ESTIMATED 50 MPH WINDS

0734 PM     TSTM WND GST   4 NW GOTHENBURG         40.97N 100.22W
07/11/2010 M60.00 MPH       DAWSON             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER
            MEASURED 60 MPH GUST FROM HOME WEATHER STATION

0735 PM     TSTM WND GST   7 NNW GOTHENBURG        41.02N 100.21W
07/11/2010 E70.00 MPH       DAWSON             NE   PUBLIC
            ESTIMATED 70 MPH WINDS AND NICKEL SIZED HAIL. BRANCHES
            DOWN.

0755 PM     TSTM WND DMG     GOTHENBURG              40.93N 100.16W
07/11/2010                           DAWSON             NE   TRAINED SPOTTER
            6 INCH DIAMETER TREE BRANCHES DOWN. WINDS ESTIMATED AT 50
            MPH. DIME SIZE HAIL.

0801 PM     TSTM WND GST     COZAD                   40.86N 99.99W
07/11/2010 E50.00 MPH          DAWSON             NE   CO-OP OBSERVER
            ESTIMATED 50 MPH WINDS AND DIME SIZED HAIL

0811 PM     HAIL             6 WSW LEXINGTON         40.75N 99.85W
07/11/2010 E1.00 INCH       DAWSON             NE   STORM CHASER
            QUARTER SIZED HAIL