How Windy Was It? A Look At Nebraska Gusts Oct. 23-27

Nov 06, 2017

By Al Dutcher

It was "Hold your Hat" weather last week in Nebraska as evidenced by field after field of broken corn stalks and ears lying on the ground. The Nebraska plains were swept by winds of 30-50 mph, often over a sustained period, Oct. 23-27. (See related story, Potential Reasons for Weakened Ear Shanks and Ear Loss.)

The following tables show the peak periods as well as how many hours in a given day had high winds for two sites: Broken Bow and Norfolk. On Thursday, Oct. 26, 19 of the day's 24 hours had wind gusts over 30 mph. Five of those hours sported gusts over 50 mph. Conditions were similar at Norfolk where 17 hours had gusts over 30 mph, but just one over 50 mph.

These readings were taken at Nebraska Mesonet sites that meet Class 1 criteria, meaning that local winds at these sites are not influenced by obstructions and/or topography (valleys and ridges). Nearby conditions could certainly have produced higher gusts, particularly over the Sandhill region where hills and valleys can act as wind funnels.

	23-OCT	24-OCT	25-OCT	26-OCT	27-OCT
NORFOLK	41	39	17	47	36
BROKEN BOW	38	31	22	51	31
VALENTINE	35	28	15	41	28
OMAHA	38	38	13	40	33
GRAND ISLAND	39	36	17	45	33
NORTH PLATTE	35	29	16	38	29
SCOTTSBLUFF	37	26	31	37	13
IMPERIAL	39	39	17	45	29
MCCOOK	41	31	18	41	31
HEBRON	29	27	12	32	20
FALLS CITY	37	36	18	29	31

Table 1. Peak one-minute wind gusts at National Weather Service Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) locations, where sensors are 10 feet above the ground.

	23-OCT	24-OCT	25-OCT	26-OCT	27-OCT
BROKEN BOW
>30 MPH	12	10	0	19	13
>40 MPH	5	0	0	14	0
>50 MPH	0	0	0	5	0
NORFOLK
>30 MPH	14	15	0	17	20
>40 MPH	7	5	0	14	6
>50 MPH	0	0	0	1	0

Table 2. Number of hours that recorded a peak 5-second gust exceeding 30, 40, and 50 mph (preliminary data)

Source: unl.edu

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