Transient Supercells: May 23, 2018

Hail at Oshkosh Country Club

Another panhandle chase, this time in the Nebraska panhandle, featured transient supercells, passing from northeastern Colorado into western/central Nebraska.

Multiple isolated storms developed in northeastern Colorado during the afternoon, but it took some time before the storms became better organized. One such storm crossed over into the Nebraska panhandle south of Lodgepole. This storm showed some weak rotation, but since it was relatively high-based, there was no expectation of any tornado forming. Nonetheless, the storm did allow for a photo opportunity in a field of horses.

This storm interacted with another storm near Oshkosh and the cluster of storms persisted into the evening, as they moved into western and eventually central Nebraska. The main feature with these storms was hail. Near Oshkosh, the storms produced a large amount of relatively small hail. The storms showed transient supercellular characteristics, but overall, storm mergers and a lack of more substantial low-level shear limited storm organization.

Hail shaft (left) associated with a severe thunderstorm near Lewellen, NE.