From the late afternoon of Thursday the 28th into the very early morning of Friday the 29th, strong to severe thunderstorms impacted a few far southwestern and also northern counties of South Central Nebraska, yielding primarily large hail and localized heavy rain, but also one brief, weak tornado. This tornado, spawned by the most intense supercell storm of the day that primarily impacted Harlan County, consisted of a narrow, dusty circulation that tracked along a short path in a rural area south-southwest of Alma (as captured by storm chaser video). Both zones of local convection yielded severe-criteria hail, with the largest reported stones of 1.5 to 2 inches occurring in the Oxford, Alma, Holbrook and Cambridge vicinities. The northern area of storms featured quarter size hail reports from Loup City and Elba, along with a mesonet-measured 59 MPH wind gust in northeastern Nance County (this was actually the only known severe-criteria gust of the event). Rainfall-wise, while most places affected by storms received no more than 1.50 inches, portions of primarily southern Harlan and northern Furnas counties measured at least 2.50-3.00, including an unofficial mesonet with 3.96 south of Alma and a CoCoRaHS report of 3.05 in Arapahoe. However, there were no ground-truth reports of significant flooding.
Breaking down event evolution/timing within each main area of convection and starting with the more intense southwestern activity: things got going between 4-5 p.m. CDT as an isolated supercell fired up over the northern Furnas-Harlan County border, initiating in a zone of modest surface moisture convergence along a weak trough axis extending northeastward out of western KS. Over the next few hours, this stout storm drifted very slowly south-southeastward through much of Harlan County, finally exiting the state southward into KS by around 7:30 p.m. CDT. In the wake of the departed supercell, scattered storms began developing (and re-developing) within Furnas, Harlan, southern Gosper and southern Phelps counties for several hours, in response to lift within the nose of a gradually-strengthening low level jet. Through 10:30 p.m. CDT most of this activity remained fairly weak, but especially between 11 p.m-1 a.m. CDT a west-east oriented band intensified over northern Furnas County, dropping hail to at least golf ball size in spots before lifting into southern Gosper County and weakening/dissipating by 2 a.m. CDT. Turning to the completely separate area of strong to severe storms farther north: a broken, east-northeast to west-southwest oriented line of convection first got underway within Valley/Greeley counties between 4:30-6:30 p.m. CDT, focused along a quasi-stationary front draped across central NE. Through 9 p.m. CDT, strong to briefly-severe storms remained mainly north of Highway 92 as they drifted slowly south-southeast, gradually weakening and congealing into a more solid line. Between 9-11 p.m. CDT the eastern reaches of this convection sagged as far south as Hamilton/York counties but was non-severe. By midnight CDT the vast majority of local eastern counties were storm-free, and largely remained so through the rest of the night. In the mid-upper levels, this was a weakly-forced event as South Central Nebraska resided under fairly benign quasi-zonal flow (even subtle weak ridging), well-downstream from a larger-scale trough still well off to the west during the evening (over the Intermountain West). As a result, deep-layer wind shear was not overly-strong, averaging just 30-35 knots. In addition, low-level moisture was seasonably-modest, with surface dewpoints peaking only mid-50s F. However, due in part to afternoon temperatures climbing a bit higher than anticipated (highs mid-80s F), mixed-layer CAPE topped out as high as 1500-2000 J/kg. Ultimately, the combination of healthy instability, modest shear, modest convergence along the aforementioned surface boundaries and eventually an increasing low level jet proved sufficient to drive limited areal coverage of intense convection, most notably the Harlan County supercell.

Hail in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 15:29:00 to 28-APR-22 15:29:00 (CST-6)
Location: OXFORD
Magnitude: 2.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Storm Chaser

Hail in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 15:30:00 to 28-APR-22 15:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: OXFORD
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 16:30:00 to 28-APR-22 16:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALMA
Magnitude: 1.50 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 17:07:00 to 28-APR-22 17:07:00 (CST-6)
Location: ORLEANS
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Hail in SHERMAN, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 18:18:00 to 28-APR-22 18:18:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOUP CITY
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in HOWARD, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 18:44:00 to 28-APR-22 18:44:00 (CST-6)
Location: ELBA
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Thunderstorm Wind in NANCE, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 18:58:00 to 28-APR-22 18:58:00 (CST-6)
Location: GENOA
Magnitude: 51.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located nine miles west-northwest of Genoa.

Hail in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 22:10:00 to 28-APR-22 22:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: EDISON
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Fire Department/Rescue

Hail in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 22:15:00 to 28-APR-22 22:45:00 (CST-6)
Location: HOLBROOK
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Fire Department/Rescue

Off and on quarter size hail was reported to have fallen for at least 30 minutes.

Hail in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 23:00:00 to 28-APR-22 23:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: HOLBROOK
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 23:06:00 to 28-APR-22 23:06:00 (CST-6)
Location: CAMBRIDGE
Magnitude: 2.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Tornado in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 17:30:00 to 28-APR-22 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALMA
Tornado F-scale: EFU
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Storm Chaser

As captured by storm chaser video, this tornado briefly touched down in open country approximately six miles southwest of Alma. No damage was reported.

Heavy Rain in FURNAS, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 19:00:00 to 29-APR-22 00:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: ARAPAHOE
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

NeRAIN observer reported a 24-hour rain total of 3.05, which based on radar data fell almost entirely during this 5-hour period.

Heavy Rain in HARLAN, NEBRASKA
From 28-APR-22 17:30:00 to 28-APR-22 21:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALMA
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Unofficial mesonet reported 3.96 of rain during this 4-hour period.