When considering the time of day, this Tuesday featured a somewhat rare type of severe weather event in far southeastern portions of the local area (mainly Thayer County): severe hail-producing storms that didn't initiate until a few hours after sunrise, peaked in intensity mid-late morning and departed east of the area during the early afternoon. More specifically, mainly between 9:00 a.m.-1:30 p.m. CDT, a number of elevated storms continuously redeveloped over the same west-to-east corridor, resulting in several hail reports ranging in size from quarters to slightly larger than golf balls. The largest hail reports originated from the Hebron, Byron and Chester areas, including a broken windshield a few miles northeast of Chester. In addition, a spotter several miles northeast of Hubbell reported quarter size hail from separate storms 90 minutes apart. Outside of Thayer County, additional storms brushed through Fillmore County along with several other counties to the west along Highway 136, but for the most part they were weaker, yielding only a few accounts of dime to penny size hail in Upland and near Hardy. Although all severe-criteria reports occurred after 9 a.m. CDT, the very first storm of the morning actually flared up along the extreme southern edges of Nuckolls/Thayer counties between 8:00-8:30 a.m. CDT.  As for rainfall, the majority of Thayer County received no more than 0.50-1.00. However, east-central portions of the county were drenched with notably higher totals thanks to repeated storm training, including a measured 3.15 in Gilead, where some short-term flooding issued were noted in the vicinity.
Although the time of day was somewhat unusual for this elevated hailer event, the synoptic and mesoscale setup was supportive. In the mid-upper levels, there were no notable disturbances passing through the zonal pattern, as South Central Nebraska resided within the transition zone between weak flow to the south within a Southern Plains ridge, and much stronger flow to the north over the Dakotas/Upper Midwest. At the surface, seasonably strong high pressure was centered over Nebraska, holding the primary west-east oriented surface front and resultant low-level instability axis well to the south in Kansas. However, it was a different story around the 700 millibar level, where a persistent axis of southwesterly lift/moisture advection teamed with steepening mid-level lapse rates to yield an environment supportive of hail production, featuring 1000-2000 J/kg most-unstable CAPE and effective-shear around 40 knots.

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 09:30:00 to 23-JUN-15 09:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: CHESTER
Magnitude: 2.00 
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Hail up to 2 in diameter broke the windshield of a vehicle.

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 09:34:00 to 23-JUN-15 09:48:00 (CST-6)
Location: HUBBELL
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 15.00K
Crop damage: 125.00K
Reported by: Social Media

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 11:06:00 to 23-JUN-15 11:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: HEBRON
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Quarter to golf ball size hail reported in town.

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 09:05:00 to 23-JUN-15 09:05:00 (CST-6)
Location: BYRON
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Social Media

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 08:18:00 to 23-JUN-15 08:18:00 (CST-6)
Location: HUBBELL
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in NUCKOLLS, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 08:45:00 to 23-JUN-15 08:45:00 (CST-6)
Location: HARDY
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 10:10:00 to 23-JUN-15 10:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: UPLAND
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 11:03:00 to 23-JUN-15 11:03:00 (CST-6)
Location: HEBRON
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 12:00:00 to 23-JUN-15 12:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALEXANDRIA
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Heavy Rain in THAYER, NEBRASKA
From 23-JUN-15 08:00:00 to 23-JUN-15 13:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: GILEAD
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Storm total rainfall of 3.15, all of which fell between 9 a.m.-2 p.m. CDT. This was a rather localized area of heavy rain over eastern Thayer County, and some short-term flooding was reported in the area by county officials.