With both an early morning and late evening round of thunderstorms, this Thursday featured active weather across various parts of the region. However, severe weather was fairly isolated in South Central Nebraska, primarily impacting Dawson County in the west. During the morning, mainly between 3 and 6 AM CDT, a small mesoscale convective system (MCS) rolled east from southwest Nebraska, resulting in a few reports of penny size hail and wind gusts to around 50 MPH. This complex of storms vacated eastern portions of South Central Nebraska by mid-morning, paving the way for a dry and sunny afternoon. However, between 1030 and 1130 PM CDT, a more significant quasi-linear complex of strong to severe storms rolled into South Central Nebraska from the west, resulting in several measured and estimated wind gusts of 60-70 MPH across Dawson and northern Gosper Counties, affecting communities such as Gothenburg, Cozad and Lexington. The most significant wind damage reports came from Cozad, where road signs were damaged along Highway 30 and plastic fencing and pipes were blown around at Nebraska Plastics. These storms gradually lost their punch as they spread northeast into the Sherman and Valley County area.
Aloft, the synoptic-scale instigator for this active weather pattern was an expansive mid-level trough centered across the northern and central Rockies, along with various low-amplitude shortwaves kicking across the Central Plains region ahead of it. The evening round of severe storms first flared up across the high plains of northeast Colorado and southwest Nebraska early in the evening, before riding eastward as a forward-propagating MCS along the nose of a 40-50 knot southerly low level jet. As the leading edge of this MCS entered Dawson County, the mesoscale environment featured around 3000 J/kg of most-unstable CAPE, and strong 0-1 kilometer low-level vertical wind shear around 35 knots.

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 21:55:00 to 16-JUN-11 21:55:00 (CST-6)
Location: LEXINGTON ARPT
Magnitude: 51.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: AWOS

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 21:57:00 to 16-JUN-11 21:57:00 (CST-6)
Location: LEXINGTON ARPT
Magnitude: 54.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: AWOS

Thunderstorm Wind in GOSPER, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 22:15:00 to 16-JUN-11 22:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: JOHNSON RES
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Wind gusts were estimated at 60 MPH.

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 05:02:00 to 16-JUN-11 05:02:00 (CST-6)
Location: GOTHENBURG
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 05:30:00 to 16-JUN-11 05:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: COZAD
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 21:37:00 to 16-JUN-11 21:45:00 (CST-6)
Location: GOTHENBURG
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Storm Chaser

Wind gusts estimated between 60 and 70 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 16-JUN-11 21:45:00 to 16-JUN-11 22:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: (CZD)COZAD MUNI ARPT
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Several tree limbs were blown down, most were near 4 to 5 inches in diameter, with a few closer to 8 inches in diameter.  Road signs along Highway 30 were knocked over, and plastic fencing and pipes were moved at a local plastic plant.