Large hail smashes windows as severe storms tear through Nebraska

AccuWeather

Severe storms led to intense hail in parts of Nebraska on the evening of April 17, cracking numerous windshields, including our own Tony Laubach's.

Transcript

00:00We want to get right over to Tony Lawback, live in eastern Nebraska.

00:04Tony, what's going on out there?

00:08Well, Jeff, you guys missed a crazy little moment here.

00:12About five minutes ago, just as we were in commercial break,

00:15Fremont just got absolutely wrecked.

00:18Golf ball to possibly up to baseball-sized hail.

00:21You're looking into a field here.

00:22I'm kind of on the east side of town.

00:24You see some of the hailstones there, again, kind of in that two-inch,

00:27maybe a tennis ball-sized range, but I'm going to do a pan-down for you here.

00:32And that is what happened to the window in the midst of all that.

00:36We were sitting at an off-ramp with a lot of traffic.

00:39Again, you know, we tell people not to stop under overpasses,

00:42and a lot of folks did block a lot of traffic.

00:44A lot of motorists, myself included, stuck in that.

00:47And when the storm came through with the hail size, it did.

00:50It got a lot of us.

00:51So, fortunately, we're kind of in the back end of this now.

00:54We still have some pretty good wind, I would estimate,

00:56easily 70, probably approaching 80.

00:59I'm going to try to get some shots of the hail as things kind of wind down a little bit.

01:03Did see some kind of light roof debris, maybe shingles,

01:07kind of fly overhead at one point during this.

01:10So, definitely some significant winds with this.

01:12But, obviously, as we've been talking about all day,

01:15the hail is going to be the big threat with this,

01:17and that certainly was the case with this.

01:19Again, I'm going to – I'm looking, like I said, Jeff,

01:23probably about two inch or so hail out of this storm.

01:27We're going to kind of wait until we get a little clearing here.

01:30I'm going to run out.

01:31You got my dash cam.

01:32Keep me on audio here for a second.

01:34I'm going to try to do this creatively.

01:37Just get some of the hail that's nearby here,

01:39stepping in front of the dash cam.

01:41This is some of the smaller hail that's just kind of in the parking lot where I'm at right now.

01:45So, most of this, probably an inch, inch, and a quarter.

01:48This is not the biggest by far, obviously, with what it did with the windshield there.

01:52Easily, like I said, approaching tennis ball, maybe the baseball size.

01:56So, again, Fremont, you just had your fill.

01:59That is moving rapidly off to the east now.

02:02The next concern for us is going to, obviously, be trying to get across the river.

02:05But hail, definitely the big threat with this.

02:07Fortunately, nothing tornadic in town.

02:10So, that is some good news, but not good news if you didn't get your car in the shelter here.

02:14So, we'll have some of that for you coming up here in a little bit, Jeff.

02:18Absolutely, Tony.

02:18And looking at some of the reports that have been filed by the Weather Service,

02:22I see a report of golf ball size by Fremont.

02:25And then baseball size hail, there it is, near Ames, Nebraska.

02:29So, that same cell verified.

02:31You saw it there.

02:32You experienced it.

02:33But also a report of baseball size hail just off to the west at 620 Central Time.

02:38So, 12 minutes ago near Ames, Iowa as well.

02:42Ames, Nebraska, I should say.

02:43Ames, Nebraska.

02:44Ames, Iowa.

02:45You could have a stormy night, but it's still quiet for you in Ames, Iowa.

02:48So, Tony, we appreciate your reporting.

02:51Windshield damage there.

02:53Taking one for the team with, again, a nasty hailer moving through Arlington, Nebraska.

02:58Now, east of Fremont.

03:00And, again, there is some rotation still with this.

03:03Largely a hail producer at the moment, but there may be a tornado still.

03:07And Tony mentioned some pretty vicious winds coming in here on the northwest side here, the west side of the storm.

03:14So, with the rear flank downdraft, we're seeing gusts of wind about 65 miles per hour.

03:19And we're getting a really close view of this cell here from the radar site.

03:23That cone of silence right over a valley, this is like putting the bifocals on here and looking very closely.

03:28So, we're looking just hundreds of feet above the ground.

03:32When you're far from the radar site, you're looking thousands of feet up.

03:35But here we're getting a laser-focused view of what's going on at ground level where it matters most.

03:41So, we're getting a laser-focused view of what's going on at ground level where it matters most.

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