Despite marginal convective instability, the first severe thunderstorms of 2015 rumbled across mainly the eastern two-thirds of South Central Nebraska on this Wednesday evening, resulting in several reports of mostly marginally severe hail and wind gusts along an advancing cold front. Nearly all thunderstorms focused east of a Greeley-Kearney-Alma line, and assumed primarily a quasi-linear, multicell mode. In terms of hail, most was only up to quarter size, including several reports from the vicinities of Boelus, Ravenna, Alma, Doniphan, Trumbull and Deshler. The largest reported stones of half dollar size fell in Waco. As for wind gusts, speeds up to around 60 MPH were reported in or near Franklin, Blue Hill, Edgar and Ayr, with a home weather station northwest of Red Cloud clocking a peak gust of 73 MPH. Although no tornadoes occurred, the environment was conducive for a few gustnadoes along thunderstorm outflow, including one captured on storm chaser video east of Alma. On another severe weather side note, an intense lightning bolt struck a large tree in Hastings around 915 p.m. CDT, setting the tree on fire and scattering limbs as far as 100 feet. Rainfall-wise, the vast majority of the local area received well under 1, with the main exception of higher amounts concentrated in Nuckolls and Thayer counties, where a NeRAIN observer near Nora measured 1.77.
Breaking down event timing, storms first flared up along the well-defined surface cold front between 6-7 p.m. CDT, with convection then expanding in coverage and tracking east through the evening. Although most strong to severe storms exited east of the local area by 10 p.m. CDT, regenerative development of stronger cores along the southern end of the complex persisted through around midnight CDT, mainly in Nuckolls/Thayer counties. All in all, this was a fairly standard issue first severe weather event of the season, primarily driven by low-level frontal forcing. Early in the evening, this northeast-southwest oriented front stretched across the heart of the local area, tied into a 998 millibar low pressure center in north central Kansas. Although afternoon temperatures ahead of the boundary warmed well into the 80s F, rather meager dewpoints only in the 40s likely precluded a potentially greater severe weather threat. Nonetheless, the presence of steep low-mid level lapse rates promoted sufficient mixed-layer CAPE of 500-1000 J/kg in the presence of decent 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear of 30-50 knots. In the mid-upper levels, southwesterly flow was fairly modest for this time of year, as the primary large scale trough shifted from the Northern Rockies into the Northern Plains.

Hail in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 17:22:00 to 01-APR-15 17:22:00 (CST-6)
Location: BOELUS
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 17:45:00 to 01-APR-15 17:45:00 (CST-6)
Location: RAVENNA
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 17:50:00 to 01-APR-15 17:50:00 (CST-6)
Location: HARLAN CO RES
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 18:52:00 to 01-APR-15 18:52:00 (CST-6)
Location: ST LIBORY
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in HALL, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 19:27:00 to 01-APR-15 19:27:00 (CST-6)
Location: DONIPHAN
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Quarter size hail was reported seven miles south of Grand Island on Interstate 80 near mile marker 316.

Hail in YORK, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 20:30:00 to 01-APR-15 20:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: YORK
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 20:33:00 to 01-APR-15 20:33:00 (CST-6)
Location: BRUNING
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in NUCKOLLS, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 20:35:00 to 01-APR-15 20:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: SUPERIOR
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Hail in YORK, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 20:35:00 to 01-APR-15 20:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: YORK ARPT
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Social Media

This occurred in the northeast part of York.

Hail in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 20:40:00 to 01-APR-15 20:40:00 (CST-6)
Location: GUIDE ROCK
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in YORK, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 20:46:00 to 01-APR-15 20:46:00 (CST-6)
Location: WACO
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 21:40:00 to 01-APR-15 21:40:00 (CST-6)
Location: DESHLER
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Thunderstorm Wind in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 18:53:00 to 01-APR-15 18:53:00 (CST-6)
Location: RIVERTON
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 1.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Storm Chaser

The wind knocked down a portion of a wood fence and small tree debris was blown across the road.

Thunderstorm Wind in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 19:35:00 to 01-APR-15 19:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: BLUE HILL
Magnitude: 52.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

This was measured at a home weather station.

Thunderstorm Wind in WEBSTER, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 19:12:00 to 01-APR-15 19:12:00 (CST-6)
Location: INAVALE
Magnitude: 63.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

This was a peak gust measured at a home station.

Thunderstorm Wind in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 19:55:00 to 01-APR-15 19:55:00 (CST-6)
Location: EDGAR
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 19:33:00 to 01-APR-15 19:33:00 (CST-6)
Location: AYR
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Social Media

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.

Hail in CLAY, NEBRASKA
From 01-APR-15 19:50:00 to 01-APR-15 19:50:00 (CST-6)
Location: TRUMBULL
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public