Despite initial concern for perhaps a more widespread threat, severe storms only impacted a small fraction of South Central Nebraska on this late Tuesday afternoon and evening...mainly just parts of Dawson and Buffalo counties. Ground-truth reports were fairly limited and primarily consisted of hail, including half dollar size stones in Sumner, quarter size about halfway between Sumner and Overton, and nickel size in Lexington. There were also a few marginally-severe wind gusts, including 59 MPH near Eddyville and estimated 60 MPH on the north edge of Kearney, the latter likely caused by an interaction between outflow from nearby storms and gusty north winds along the leading edge of a strong, synoptically-driven cold front. Breaking down event evolution and timing, the first local severe-warned storm of the day fired up over western Dawson County between 5-6 p.m. CDT, quickly becoming undercut by the aforementioned cold front surging in from the northwest. Over the next few hours, another severe storm roamed eastern portions of Dawson County. But already by 8 p.m. CDT the early storms had diminished below severe levels, evolving into a cluster of fairly weak convection (albeit with spotty small hail) that drifted across several counties mainly north of Interstate 80 through mid-late evening. Meanwhile, attempts at robust convective initiation out ahead of the crashing cold front south of Interstate 80/west of Highway 281 largely failed between 6-8 p.m. CDT, yielding only a few showers and weak, brief storms. A bit farther east, a strong storm over north central Kansas tried invading the Nuckolls County area from the south but weakened before doing so. Thus, the vast majority of South Central Nebraska was spared severe convection, as any regional severe activity that developed south of Interstate 80 focused well-south into north central and central Kansas.
On paper, this was a respectable severe weather setup for South Central Nebraska, but ultimately proved to have too many limiting factors for a more widespread event. In the mid-upper levels, lift was provided by a low-amplitude disturbance ejecting across the Central Plains, but the local area remained a bit displaced/east of the strongest forcing associated with a closed low churning across Colorado. At the surface, an effective triple-point took shape over western portions of South Central Nebraska by late afternoon, although the primary low pressure center (around 994 millibars) focused slightly south within western/central Kansas. In addition, moisture return ahead of the cold front into South Central Nebraska was somewhat-modest, with dewpoints only reaching the mid-upper 50s (F). Furthermore, afternoon high temperatures were held down in the 70s in most of the area thanks to fairly widespread clouds, likely enhancing capping and thus hindering pre-frontal, warm sector initiation. Despite the various limiting factors that ultimately contributed to the sparse coverage of severe storms locally, the late afternoon/early-evening mesoscale environment commanded some respect, featuring a narrow axis of mixed-layer CAPE as high as 1500-2000 J/kg in the presence of 30-50 knots of deep-layer wind shear.

Thunderstorm Wind in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 06-APR-21 17:31:00 to 06-APR-21 17:31:00 (CST-6)
Location: EDDYVILLE
Magnitude: 51.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 06-APR-21 17:48:00 to 06-APR-21 17:48:00 (CST-6)
Location: LEXINGTON
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 06-APR-21 18:10:00 to 06-APR-21 18:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: OVERTON
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 06-APR-21 18:15:00 to 06-APR-21 18:25:00 (CST-6)
Location: OVERTON
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in DAWSON, NEBRASKA
From 06-APR-21 18:28:00 to 06-APR-21 18:28:00 (CST-6)
Location: SUMNER
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Thunderstorm Wind in BUFFALO, NEBRASKA
From 06-APR-21 18:58:00 to 06-APR-21 18:58:00 (CST-6)
Location: KEARNEY
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH, likely due to an interaction between outflow from nearby storms and gusty north winds along the leading edge of a strong cold front.