LEXINGTON — The local area and nearly all of Nebraska was battered by wind gusts up to 60 mph over the course of two days this week.
From Wednesday, April 6, through Thursday, April 7, strong wind gusts out of the northwest tore through the countryside and prompted blowing dust and fire weather warnings.
The culprit for the gale: a slow moving, deepening low pressure system over Minnesota and Wisconsin. As a result, a strong pressure gradient took shape, one of the main forces acting on air to make it move as wind.
Some of the strongest gusts on Wednesday were reported in Dawson County, according to the National Weather Service – Hastings. A weather station site one mile northwest of Cozad recorded a 62 mph gust at 11:45 a.m., an hour earlier a 59 mph gust occurred.
A list of warnings and advisories NWS Hastings had issued on Thursday included, High Wind Warning, Red Flag Warning, Blowing Dust Advisory, Fire Weather Watch and Extreme Fire Danger Warning.
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Unfortunately, the system offered little in the way of precipitation and the area remains under severe drought conditions.
Since Nov. 1, a NWS site south of Elwood has only received 1.20 inches of precipitation from Nov. 1 to April 6, a departure of 29 percent from the 30 year average.
A site south of Lexington has only received 1.21 inches in the same time span, a 31 percent departure from the average.
