Between 11 p.m. CDT on Saturday the 14th and 8:30 a.m. on Sunday the 15th, numerous elevated thunderstorms occurred in various parts of South Central Nebraska, but with the most concentrated activity focused within a narrow, north-south band centered roughly from Arcadia-Elm Creek-Orleans. While the vast majority of this overnight-early morning activity was not severe, producing only heavy rain and sporadic small hail, there were a few reports of severe-criteria hail including a pocket of quarter to ping pong ball size stones in parts (not all) of Hastings around sunrise, and also copious amounts of hail up to quarter size near Elm Creek around 4 a.m. CDT that caused some crop and vehicle damage. Slightly smaller nickel size hail was also reported in Upland and near Arcadia. While rainfall totals varied widely outside the aforementioned narrow north-south swath, places within the heart of this mainly 10-mile-or-less wide strip averaged 1.50-3.00 inches, with a few of the highest measured totals featuring 3.72��� near Orleans, 2.99��� north-northwest of Holdrege and 2.98��� south-southwest of Elm Creek. However, there were no reports of impactful flooding.
This mostly-nocturnal event was a fairly classic example of somewhat-subtle low-mid level moisture convergence (evident in the 850-700 millibar layer) and along the eastern fringes of a 30-40 knot southerly low level jet (850 millibars) promoting a mesoscale heavy rain band along with transient hail cores. In the mid-upper levels, South Central Nebraska resided under modest north-northwesterly flow containing a steady stream of embedded subtle perturbations. Timing-wise, the beginning stages of this event got underway around 11 p.m. as a briefly-isolated storm developed in eastern Dawson County. Over the course of the next several hours, the aforementioned north-south band became increasingly established within the western half of South Central Nebraska, while more scattered activity slowly drifted east along its eastern fringes. During the 5-7 a.m. CDT time frame the persistent band finally dissipated, shifting the focus to some of the spottier hail cores closer to the Highway 281 corridor (including the one over Hastings). After 7 a.m., a couple of more small hail cores pulsed up over parts of Clay, Hamilton and southwestern York counties, but by 8:30 a.m. CDT any strong convection had all but faded away. Through the balance of this event, instability/shear parameters featured around 1000-1500 J/kg most-unstable CAPE and 30-40 knots of effective deep-layer shear.

Hail in FRANKLIN, NEBRASKA
From 15-AUG-21 01:30:00 to 15-AUG-21 01:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: UPLAND
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Social Media

Hail in VALLEY, NEBRASKA
From 15-AUG-21 02:40:00 to 15-AUG-21 02:40:00 (CST-6)
Location: ARCADIA
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Hail in ADAMS, NEBRASKA
From 15-AUG-21 05:26:00 to 15-AUG-21 05:26:00 (CST-6)
Location: HASTINGS
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Employee

Hail in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 15-AUG-21 03:10:00 to 15-AUG-21 03:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: ELM CREEK
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 3.00M
Reported by: Social Media

Hail up to quarter size caused some damage to vehicles, buildings, and crops.