During a four-hour period centered from 630-1030 pm CDT on this Sunday evening, a complex of severe thunderstorms tracked from northwest-to-southeast through primarily the southwestern two-thirds of South Central Nebraska, resulting in numerous reports of damaging winds ranging from 60 to around 80 MPH. Hail was not a significant issue, with nickel size stones being the largest reported. Although high winds also affected some counties farther west, the primary swath of damaging winds was roughly 20-40 miles wide, extending from the Valley/Sherman counties area in the northwest, southeastward through the Hall/Adams/Nuckolls counties areas. Along this main corridor, a sampling of the most wind significant reports in chronological order included: estimated 70 MPH winds in the Elyria and Litchfield areas with crop and tree damage, a measured 71 MPH gust near Wood River, a measured peak gust of 83 MPH at Hastings airport along with 10-20 minutes of persistent 60-80 MPH wind behind the initial surge, and up to 30 minutes of estimated 60-70 MPH gusts in Superior. Off to the west of this main zone of wind issues, there were a few reports of gusts around 60 MPH in the Lexington and Arapahoe areas. Rainfall-wise, the progressive nature of convection kept totals in most places no higher than 0.50-1.50 inches, with a few of the wetter exceptions per NeRAIN observes featuring 2.30 nine miles northwest of Ord and 2.13 six miles southeast of Davenport.
In a basic sense, this event consisted of an initially semi-discrete supercell cluster that first developed in north central Nebraska during the mid-afternoon hours and then gradually grew upscale into a larger-scale, forward-propagating linear mesoscale convective system (MCS) as it crossed the local South Central Nebraska area. This intense storm complex first infiltrated the local area into Valley/Sherman/Dawson counties between 630-730 pm CDT, blew through the Grand Island/Hastings areas during the 815-930 pm CDT time frame and finally departed southeastward into northern Kansas between 10-11 pm CDT. Although showers/weak storms lingered over mainly eastern counties a bit longer, the vast majority of South Central Nebraska was void of precipitation by 1 am CDT on the 18th.
By late-summer standards, this synoptic and mesoscale setup was fairly ripe for an organized severe weather event. In the mid-upper levels, a low-amplitude shortwave trough brushed into Nebraska from the northwest, along the southern periphery of a larger scale disturbance centered over southern Saskatchewan/Manitoba. As a result, mid-upper level flow increased enough to promote generally 30-40 knots of 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear over South Central Nebraska. In addition, instability was quite potent as the combination of afternoon surface temperatures in the upper-80s/near 90 F and dewpoints in the mid-60s/low-70s promoted mixed-layer CAPE values of 2000-4000 J/kg ahead of the incoming convective complex.

Thunderstorm Wind in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 17:46:00 to 17-AUG-14 17:46:00 (CST-6)
Location: ORD
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH. Crop damage was reported in the area.

Thunderstorm Wind in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 17:55:00 to 17-AUG-14 17:55:00 (CST-6)
Location: ARCADIA
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. Crop and tree damage was reported in the area.

Thunderstorm Wind in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 18:23:00 to 17-AUG-14 18:23:00 (CST-6)
Location: LITCHFIELD
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH, with tree branches up to 6 to 8 inches in diameter being downed.

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 18:33:00 to 17-AUG-14 18:33:00 (CST-6)
Location: SUMNER
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 100.00K
Crop damage: 2.00M
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH. Crop and tree damage was reported in the area.

Thunderstorm Wind in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 18:38:00 to 17-AUG-14 18:38:00 (CST-6)
Location: ROCKVILLE
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 1.00M
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH. Tree damage was reported in the area.

Thunderstorm Wind in HALL, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:22:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:22:00 (CST-6)
Location: WOOD RIVER
Magnitude: 62.00 MG
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:26:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:26:00 (CST-6)
Location: JUNIATA
Magnitude: 62.00 MG
Property damage: 62.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:40:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:40:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 72.00 MG
Property damage: 75.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: ASOS

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:40:00 to 17-AUG-14 20:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: HASTINGS
Magnitude: 70.00 EG
Property damage: 75.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Employee

Wind gusts were estimated to be between 60 and 80 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:53:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:53:00 (CST-6)
Location: AYR
Magnitude: 56.00 EG
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Employee

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 65 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in NUCKOLLS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 20:45:00 to 17-AUG-14 21:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: SUPERIOR
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Wind gusts over a 30 minute period were estimated to be between 60 and 70 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:59:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:59:00 (CST-6)
Location: HARVARD
Magnitude: 53.00 MG
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 18:41:00 to 17-AUG-14 18:41:00 (CST-6)
Location: LEXINGTON
Magnitude: 50.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Spotter measured the wind gust with a hand held anemometer.

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 18:55:00 to 17-AUG-14 18:55:00 (CST-6)
Location: GOTHENBURG
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:00:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: LEXINGTON
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.

Hail in HALL, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:15:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: CAIRO
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Hail in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:16:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:16:00 (CST-6)
Location: RIVERDALE
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Thunderstorm Wind in KEARNEY, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:29:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:29:00 (CST-6)
Location: NORMAN
Magnitude: 56.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Thunderstorm Wind in HALL, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:34:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:34:00 (CST-6)
Location: DONIPHAN
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Employee

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.  Tree branches were blown down across Highway 281.

Thunderstorm Wind in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:34:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:34:00 (CST-6)
Location: ARAPAHOE
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH, resulting in blowing dust and near zero visibility.

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:39:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:39:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 53.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: ASOS

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:42:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:42:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 53.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:52:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:52:00 (CST-6)
Location: HASTINGS
Magnitude: 54.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Official NWS Observations

Wind gust was measured at the Hastings NWS Office.

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 19:53:00 to 17-AUG-14 19:53:00 (CST-6)
Location: AYR
Magnitude: 56.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Employee

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 65 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 20:06:00 to 17-AUG-14 20:06:00 (CST-6)
Location: (HSI)HASTINGS ARPT
Magnitude: 53.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: ASOS

Thunderstorm Wind in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 17-AUG-14 18:38:00 to 17-AUG-14 18:38:00 (CST-6)
Location: ELBA
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH by an NeRAIN observer.