Amber Grosbach of Enders shows pieces of hail that landed at their house Monday night. The Grosbachs had damage to their garden and their wheat. (Courtesy photo)
A tornado touched down briefly seven miles northwest of Imperial Monday night. No damage had been reported as of Tuesday. (Courtesy photo)
Chase County sees hail, high winds in severe thunderstorms
There were two separate thunderstorms and a tornado warning that threatened Chase County Monday night.
Both storms put the area in severe thunderstorm warnings, but only the later one—which was more to the south—resulted in anything significant for those in the Imperial city limits.
The first system caused a report of 2.25 inches of rain, 12 miles north of Imperial.
“But that amount was in about a 30-minute time frame,” said Cliff Cole of the National Weather Service in North Platte.
“It just dumped a lot of rain in a short amount of time,” Cole added.
Multiple alerts went out Monday night via the RAVE alert system, including severe thunderstorm warnings and even a tornado warning.
That tornado warning proved true, when a tornado touched down seven miles northwest of Imperial.
“It did touch down,” Cole said, “but it didn’t last very long.”
No damages were reported from the tornado.
Many area farmers sustained crop damage—mainly wheat—from the large hail.
McNair Agency’s Alex McNair said he’s had a few farmers report wheat damage.
“Based off of Facebook and pictures, there is some wheat that I think took some pretty good damage,” McNair said.
Cole said the biggest hail reported was 3.5 inches near Enders.
“There was definitely some baseball-sized hail,” he added.
Amber and Joel Grosbach of Enders were in the area that received large hail.
“The garden has hail dents that look like deer trampled through,” Amber said.
In addition to the hail, strong winds were a factor, as well.
Cole said a trained weather spotter reported a power pole north of Imperial snapped in half from the wind, though the city didn’t experience power outages.
“I haven’t heard of any outside of town either,” Imperial Public Works Director Pat Davison said.
The weather spotter clocked wind gusts at 89 mph four miles northwest of Imperial.
“That’s definitely related to the tornado,” Cole said.
“The thing with tornadic storms is they may not produce a tornado but they can sure produce some heavy winds,” he said
To sign up for the RAVE alert system, go to www.co.chase.ne.us and click “Sign-up for RAVE.”