8/9/2011 Western Nebraska Hail and Landspout Tornado

An outbreak of severe weather across the high plains prompts severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings from Wyoming into Kansas where over 200 severe weather reports were generated. In this video package by BNVN Weather Paparazzi Tony Laubach, it shows a discrete supercell that formed on the Wyoming side of the Wyoming and Nebraska border.

This storm system tracked over 300 miles and generated hail up to baseball size as well as several weak tornadoes.  It moved across four states with it starting out in Wyoming and then moving into the Nebraska Panhandle, clipping northeast Colorado, back into Nebraska and finally ending up moving into Kansas.

Video  opens up with footage in Hitchcock County, Nebraska right along the KS/NE border as hail up to golfball size was falling in front of the Welcome to Nebraska state sign on State Highway 25 about 15 miles south of Trenton. Video continues with various shots of large hail up to 2.25" in diameter falling on the roads and vehicles. Final shot of first part of the video shows Tony holding spiked hail up to 2" in diameter.

The second half of the video includes footage from around Sidney, Nebraska which is in the panhandle along Interstate 80. Video shows various storm clouds and then continues to show a weak tornado called a "Landspout Tornado" that developed 2 miles south of Sidney on the south side of Interstate 80.  The video continues showing more of the hailstorm on Interstate 80 and State Route 19 southwest of Sidney.

Tony shot some interesting footage as hail covers NE-19 south of Sidney where the hail is several inches deep. Tony compared the hail compared with a tennis-ball and measured on a ruler to 2.25".   After the hail fell and started to melt, in the field in front of Tony it became covered with another rare event called "Hail Fog" where the air close to the ground cools down to temperatures much cooler than that of the surrounding air.

The video ends with footage of a rainbow while driving.  Tony said he was chasing the rainbow.