This Wednesday evening into early Thursday morning featured South Central Nebraska's last bout of strong to severe thunderstorms in 2014. Although radar data suggested that isolated severe convection lingered into the early morning hours of the 2nd, all ground-truth severe weather reports occurred on the 1st between 730-1130 pm CDT, in areas west of Highway 14 and south of Highway 92. The highlight of the evening was an elevated supercell that tracked east generally down Highway 6 through Adams and Clay counties between 8-10 pm CDT, yielding numerous reports of hail up to half dollar size in places including Hastings. Along with the hail, this storm produced strong to marginally severe wind including measured gusts of 55 MPH at Hastings airport and 66 MPH at a mesonet site five miles southwest of Harvard. Not surprisingly, this combination of hail and wind damaged siding on area homes. Outside the path of this primary severe storm, there were several other quarter size hail reports during the evening, including near Naponee and Franklin in Franklin County and at Amherst and near Miller in Buffalo County. Due to the fairly progressive nature of most convection, the majority of South Central Nebraska received no more than 0.50-1.00 inch of rain, although small pockets topped out closer to two inches, including 1.88 two miles west of Kenesaw (NeRAIN).
Taking a closer look at convective mode and timing, the first isolated strong to severe storms flared up between 630-800 pm CDT within various central counties including Franklin, Kearney, Adams and Buffalo. As this initial isolated activity drifted east or northeast during the ensuing few hours, by far the most organized storm was the one over Adams/Clay counties, which assumed elevated supercell characteristics. A bit later in the evening mainly between 10 pm-12 am CDT, another isolated strong to severe storm drifted across northeastern Dawson and northern Buffalo counties. However, the main feature of the later evening and post-midnight hours was a north-to-south oriented squall line that first entered far western portions of South Central Nebraska between 11 pm-12 am CDT. Initially, it appeared this convective line might become legitimately severe, but in fact it yielded only a few reports of sub-severe hail and wind as it limped into the Highway 281 corridor counties by 2 am CDT. Just as it appeared any severe threat might be over with for the night, the southern end of the line morphed into a semi-discrete, radar-indicated severe storm that tracked across mainly southern portions of Webster, Nuckolls and Thayer counties between 2-4 am CDT before exiting the local area. However, this storm yielded no verifying ground-truth reports, and in its wake, only scattered showers and a few very weak thunderstorms lingered over South Central Nebraska through the remainder of the night.
On the synoptic scale aloft, this early-autumn severe event focused just downstream from a sharpening mid-upper trough axis aligned from the far western Dakotas to the Four Corners region at midnight. Some of the initial early-evening convection was likely aided by subtle forcing from a weak lead wave out ahead of this parent trough. At the surface during the evening, forcing for convection was also rather nebulous, although a weak trough axis was draped through the general area. Toward midnight and through the early morning hours of the 2nd, a more organized cold front pushed through South Central Nebraska and helped promote the increasing areal coverage of convection. Instability-wise, this was not an overly-favorable setup for severe weather as surface dewpoints only averaged in the mid-50s F and most-unstable CAPE only peaked around 1000 J/kg. However, 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear was fairly strong at generally 40-50 knots, helping to enhance storm organization.

Hail in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 18:35:00 to 01-OCT-14 18:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: AMHERST
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Hail in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 18:56:00 to 01-OCT-14 18:56:00 (CST-6)
Location: FRANKLIN
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:25:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:25:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Public

At Southern Hills Golf Course, 1.25 inch diameter hail occurred.

Hail in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 20:30:00 to 01-OCT-14 20:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: HARVARD
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 22:20:00 to 01-OCT-14 22:20:00 (CST-6)
Location: MILLER
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 22:42:00 to 01-OCT-14 22:42:00 (CST-6)
Location: WILLOW IS
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:30:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:33:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Quarter size hail was reported at 830 pm CDT about 2 miles southwest of Hastings, which was reported by a trained spotter. Quarter size hail was also reported at 833 pm CDT about 4 miles southwest of Hastings, which was reported by the public.

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:35:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: JUNIATA
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Copious amounts of hail were covering Highway 6, with some hail up to the size of quarters.

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:49:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:54:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: NWS Employee

Several NWS employees in Hastings reported penny to nickel size hail during this time.

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:56:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:56:00 (CST-6)
Location: HASTINGS
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: NWS Employee

The one inch diameter hail occurred along with thunderstorm wind gusts estimated at 50 mph.

Hail in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 20:13:00 to 01-OCT-14 20:13:00 (CST-6)
Location: INLAND
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Public

Hail in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 20:21:00 to 01-OCT-14 20:21:00 (CST-6)
Location: HARVARD
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 1.00M
Reported by: Public

Hail in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 20:14:00 to 01-OCT-14 20:14:00 (CST-6)
Location: INLAND
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Trained Spotter

This report was relayed by the Clay County Emergency Manager.

Thunderstorm Wind in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 20:25:00 to 01-OCT-14 20:25:00 (CST-6)
Location: INLAND
Magnitude: 57.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:49:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:49:00 (CST-6)
Location: HASTINGS
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Social Media

One inch diameter hail was occurring, with damage to siding occurring. Wind gusts of 55 mph were measured a bit earlier at 848 pm CDT at the Hastings Airport, which likely contributed to the damage to siding. This report was received from Facebook.

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 19:50:00 to 01-OCT-14 19:50:00 (CST-6)
Location: HASTINGS
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Social Media

This report was received from Facebook.

Hail in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 18:32:00 to 01-OCT-14 18:32:00 (CST-6)
Location: NAPONEE
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

This report is from NERAIN network.

Hail in KEARNEY, NEBRASKA
From 01-OCT-14 18:30:00 to 01-OCT-14 18:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOWELL
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Nickel size hail was reported at El Charman housing development.