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.
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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.