STORM2K

NOUS43 KGID 232021
PNSGRI

PUBLIC INFORMATION STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE HASTINGS NE
320 PM CDT MON JUN 23 2003

...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE CONDUCTS SURVEYS OF STORM DAMAGE...

SEVERE WEATHER RAVAGED CENTRAL NEBRASKA AND NORTH CENTRAL KANSAS
SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THE EARLY MORNING MONDAY. THE HARDEST HIT
AREAS INCLUDED THE NEBRASKA COUNTIES OF THAYER AND HAMILTON
AND THE KANSAS COUNTIES OF JEWELL...PHILLIPS AND SMITH. THE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORECAST OFFICE IN HASTINGS DEPLOYED
THE WARNING AND COORDINATION METEOROLOGIST TO THAYER COUNTY AND TWO
WEATHER SERVICE EMPLOYEES TO HAMILTON COUNTY.

...THAYER COUNTY TORNADO...

AT 620 PM CDT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THAYER COUNTY A FEW MILES
NORTH OF DESHLER. THIS TORNADO TRACKED TO THE SOUTHEAST. DEBRIS
FIELDS AND SURFACE BASED REVIEW OF THE TRACK SUGGESTS THAT THE
TORNADO THEN TRACKED WESTWARD THROUGH TOWN BEFORE WEAKENING AND
MOVING SOUTH OF DESHLER.

THE FINAL REPORT OF TORNADIC ACTIVITY WAS AROUND 654 PM CDT...
PLACING THE TORNADO ROUGHLY 8 MILES SOUTHWEST OF DESHLER.

APPROXIMATELY 30 HOMES WERE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED. NUMEROUS STRUCTURES
SUSTAINED ROOF DAMAGE OR OTHER VISIBLE EXTERNAL STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. A
FEW HOMES WERE SHIFTED FROM THEIR FOUNDATIONS. PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT
PLACES THE TORNADO AT THE F2 RATING ON THE FUJITA SCALE.

AS OF 11 AM CDT MONDAY...THERE WERE TWO CONFIRMED INJURIES. THE
INJURED WERE TRANSPORTED TO MEDICAL FACILITIES BY AMBULANCE. IN
ADDITION TO THE INJURIES THERE IS ONE CONFIRMED DEATH. THE VICTIM
WAS A 47 YEAR OLD MALE WHO WAS LEAVING A WORKSHOP TO SEEK SHELTER
FROM THE STORM. THE DEATH OCCURRED AT APPROXIMATELY 650 PM CDT
SUNDAY.

AN AERIAL SURVEY WAS NOT CONDUCTED BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE.
THE PRELIMINARY TRACK INFORMATION MAY BE REVISED AS MORE AERIAL
FILM AND PHOTOGRAPHS BECOME AVAILABLE.

THE LAST TORNADO RELATED DEATH IN THE HASTINGS COUNTY WARNING AREA
OCCURRED DURING THE GRAND ISLAND TORNADO OUTBREAK ON JUNE 3, 1980.
FIVE DEATHS WERE REPORTED IN HALL COUNTY DURING THIS OUTBREAK.

...FUJITA SCALE EXPLAINED...

IN 1971, DR. T. THEODORE FUJITA OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO DEVISED
A SIX-CATEGORY SCALE TO CLASSIFY U.S. TORNADOES INTO SIX INTENSITY
CATEGORIES, NAMED F0-F5. THESE CATEGORIES ARE BASED UPON THE
ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WINDS OCCURRING WITHIN THE FUNNEL. THE FUJITA
TORNADO SCALE (OR THE "F SCALE") HAS SUBSEQUENTLY BECOME THE
DEFINITIVE SCALE FOR ESTIMATING WIND SPEEDS WITHIN TORNADOES BASED
UPON THE DAMAGE DONE TO BUILDINGS AND STRUCTURES. IT IS USED
EXTENSIVELY BY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN INVESTIGATING
TORNADOES (ALL TORNADOES ARE NOW ASSIGNED AN F SCALE), AND BY
ENGINEERS IN CORRELATING DAMAGE TO BUILDING STRUCTURES AND
TECHNIQUES WITH DIFFERENT WIND SPEEDS CAUSED BY TORNADOES.

SCALE SPEED

F0 40 TO 72 MPH
F1 73 TO 112 MPH
F2 113 TO 157 MPH
F3 158 TO 206 MPH
F4 207 TO 260 MPH
F5 261 TO 318 MPH

...HAMILTON COUNTY HAILSTONE...

AT 705 PM CDT SUNDAY THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN HASTINGS
RECEIVED REPORTS OF LARGE HAIL IN AURORA...HAMILTON COUNTY NEBRASKA.
INITIAL REPORTS STATED THAT THE HAIL HAD PENETRATED THE ROOF OF A
HOME, LEAVING HOLES IN THE STRUCTURE LARGE ENOUGH TO CRAWL THROUGH.

THE STONES WERE SAVED AND PLACED IN A FREEZER AT THE RESIDENCE AND
TWO NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE EMPLOYEES WERE SENT TO ASSESS THE DAMAGE
AND RECORD THE SIZE.

THE HAILSTONE MEASURED 6.5 INCHES IN DIAMETER WITH A CIRCUMFERENCE
OF 17.3 INCHES.

THIS COMPARES TO THE POTTER NEBRASKA HAILSTONE ON JULY 12, 1928. THE
POTTER NEBRASKA HAILSTONE WAS 5.4 INCHES IN DIAMETER AND WEIGHED
APPROXIMATELY 1.5 POUNDS.

...LARGEST HAILSTONE ON RECORD...

PRIOR TO TODAY...THE LARGEST HAILSTONE ON RECORD OCCURRED IN
COFFEYVILLE KANSAS ON SEPTEMBER 3, 1970. THIS STONE MEASURED 5.7
INCHES IN DIAMETER...17.5 INCHES IN CIRCUMFERENCE AND WEIGHED 1.67
POUNDS.

&&

THE FOLLOWING ARE LINKS WHICH CAN PROVE USEFUL. ALL ADDRESSES ARE
LOWER CASE AND ARE U.S. GOVERNMENT SITES.

HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/GID
HTTP://WWW.NCDC.NOAA.GOV/OA/SATELLITE/S ... ONAL/FUJIT
A.HTML HTTP://WWW.ERH.NOAA.GOV/ER/BOX/HAIL.HTML

$$

MICHAEL LEWIS
METEOROLOGIST IN CHARGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
FORECAST OFFICE
HASTINGS, NE 68901




Thanks for this info SF.....................I was getting ready to go check myself..................Its been killing me to know if the reports were true that i have and weatherwunder added to in another thread..................It is indeed amazing...............The bad part is that these same areas are at risk again tonight and probably again tommorow!

It is confirmed. Wow! :o I am sure that is record the folks in Aurora, NE would rather forget.

there is just something about NE... i want to move there, anyone with me? of course we'll all have to chip in on some good hail insurance but hey, NE is cool! let's go! p

(for the trip, plexiglass windshields might not be such a bad idea.)

Man that is some mega hail!! :o I am glad I wasn't in the path of that monster storm!! :o :o Glad the people seem to be OK in the house that it hit! Geez that's huge.

I would be glad to have you all out here. I start finding you housing!!!

I just look up the information SF, thanks for posting it.

Thanks for that info, SF... very impressive,,, that record will be REAL hard to break! :o

I've never seen hail larger than golf balls so I can't begin to even imagine what hail like that looks like! I wonder if there are any pictures of the hail.

Here's the hailstone ...


News article:
Aurora farmer:`It was raining volleyballs'
BY KEVIN ABOUREZK / Lincoln Journal Star
AURORA -- As a farmer and a National Weather Service spotter, Dale Obermeier has spent more than 25 years pondering nature's fury.


A 1991 hail storm destroyed his entire corn crop. A tornado nearly took his mother in 1936; she held onto a tree while the twister uprooted trees and buildings around her.
Never had he seen anything like what fell from the sky onto his yard Sunday.

"I looked outside, and it was raining volleyballs," he said.

Shortly before 7 p.m. Sunday, residents of this Hamilton County town, population 4,225, watched in disbelief as hail larger than softballs fell to the ground.

The storm also produced a small tornado about 2 miles west of Aurora that tore the roof from a metal barn and ripped trees from the ground.

In Aurora, hail damaged trees, homes, farm buildings, cars and left small craters in people's yards.

C.J. Hash, general manager of Advantage Chevrolet, said hail the size of softballs struck several cars, causing nearly $50,000 damage.



At least one hail stone was measured at 61/2 inches in diameter and 17.4 inches in circumference. That's 2 inches larger than a softball.

Gene Orth, 57, picked up the stone after it fell in his back yard. Two other stones left holes in the roofs of his garage and home, just north of Obermeier's.

Leaning on a wood deck behind his house Monday, he surveyed the damage.

"I've seen hail the size of baseballs, or maybe bigger, but I've never seen them that big," he said.

The hail stone could be the largest ever recorded in the United States. It's definitely the largest recorded in Nebraska, which fell in Potter in 1928 and measured 5.4 inches wide.

Michael Lewis, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Hastings, said he's unsure about the size of the hail stone that holds the U.S. record, which fell in Coffeyville, Kan., in 1970.

At least one source, Lewis said, described it as measuring 5.7 inches in diameter and 17.5 inches in circumference.

Deciding which is bigger could take some time: "We're kind of in a quagmire right now."

Some have even questioned whether the hail stone that fell in Orth's yard is, in fact, the largest that fell in Aurora on Sunday.

A team of storm chasers from Louisiana and Oklahoma said they measured a hail stone that fell in Obermeier's yard at 7 inches in diameter.

Scott Blair of the University of Louisiana-Monroe's atmospheric science program said he thought the stone was probably twice that size before Obermeier found it.

As he took photographs of the misshapen, two-pound stone in Obermeier's basement Monday, Blair expressed his awe at seeing such a large hail stone.

"You probably have in your hands the largest hail stone ever recorded in the United States," he told Obermeier.

The 75-year-old retired Aurora farmer is keeping the stone in his freezer, wrapped in tin foil beside his Cool Whip and bread.

He said he and his wife, Shirley, were in their basement when the hail began falling.

"It just sounded like someone had pushed a stove or refrigerator over on the roof,"he said.

Also note: according to another person, the updraft needed to support this would have been roughly about 195 mph.

Another shot of the hailstone ... from Hastings, NE WFO


Hastings, NE report on the June 22nd, 2003 severe weather outbreak plus more pictures ...
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/gid/svrwx/event ... storms.htm

That is absolutely incredible...a 6.5" diameter hailstone...wow!

At 41 (almost 42) years of age, the largest hailstones I've ever witnessed in person were roughly the size of a large hen egg...2-3" in diameter; and fell in connection with a complex of tornadic supercells that devastated southern and eastern areas of metro Atlanta around dinnertime on Saturday March 31, 1973.

Some reports of baseball to softball size hail were confirmed from the storm that dropped the large hail at my home in Douglasville, and caused millions of dollars in damage to several large auto dealerships in southern Cobb county, GA.

I was only 11 years of age, but will never forget the event....that was the one of the most ominous clouds I've ever seen..greenish-black and right down on the ground.
We were sure a tornado was about to strike

Perry

Wow! :o Great pictures, and what an incredible size hailstone! :o Thanks for sharing that with us, SF.

Kansas will always prevail! Anyway, it weighed more and a bigger circumference. Therefore should strill be the biggest.