Numerous thunderstorms rumbled across northern portions of South Central Nebraska on this Friday evening, including a handful of severe storms yielding reports of nickel to golf ball size hail between 7-10 p.m. CDT. All hail reports from the local coverage area emanated from the following counties mainly north of Interstate 80: Sherman, Valley, Greeley, Howard and Dawson. Sherman County highlighted this list, as areas in or near Loup City endured at least three separate rounds of hail over the course of the evening, including golf ball size stones reported by a storm chaser five miles west of town. Farther southwest, although severe storms only affected a small portion of northeastern Dawson County, the Eddyville area received off-and-on hail for nearly an hour, some of which was at least quarter size.
The first one to two hours of storm development took the form of semi-discrete multicell and brief supercell structures. However, especially after 9 p.m. CDT, convection organized into a more concentrated, small-scale mesoscale convective system that gradually lifted north and weakened with time, largely exiting the local coverage area by midnight CDT. In the mid-upper levels, forcing was relatively weak and characterized by broad west-southwest flow. However, this was one of the first high instability setups of the season, as surface dewpoints climbed into the upper 50s/low 60s F range to the south of a loosely-defined warm front draped through the area. At the time severe convection developed, mixed-layer CAPE values were around 2000 J/kg. However, effective deep layer wind shear was relatively modest, only around 30 knots. Once convection formed, it intensified and expanded in coverage due in part to residing within the exit region of a 40-60 knot southerly low level jet evident at 850 millibars.

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 18:00:00 to 14-APR-17 18:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOUP CITY
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 20:04:00 to 14-APR-17 20:04:00 (CST-6)
Location: ELYRIA
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 19:18:00 to 14-APR-17 19:18:00 (CST-6)
Location: SHERMAN RES
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 19:12:00 to 14-APR-17 20:12:00 (CST-6)
Location: EDDYVILLE
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail, mostly quarter size, lasted on and off for an hour.

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 18:45:00 to 14-APR-17 18:53:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOUP CITY
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Half dollar to golf ball size hail was reported.

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 19:29:00 to 14-APR-17 19:29:00 (CST-6)
Location: ASHTON
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Fire Department/Rescue

Hail in GREELEY, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 20:24:00 to 14-APR-17 20:24:00 (CST-6)
Location: WOLBACH
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 18:07:00 to 14-APR-17 18:07:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOUP CITY
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 19:45:00 to 14-APR-17 19:45:00 (CST-6)
Location: ST PAUL
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 20:32:00 to 14-APR-17 20:32:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOUP CITY
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Hail in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 14-APR-17 19:50:00 to 14-APR-17 20:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: ARCADIA
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Quarter to half dollar size hail was reported.