A Severe Thunderstorm Watch covers a wide band of Nebraska this morning, stretching from the Sandhills through the Platte River valley and east to the Missouri River, with four active alerts across the state as of early Saturday. Storm Prediction Center Watch 325 remains in effect until 11 AM CDT, targeting communities across multiple county clusters as thunderstorm cells track through the region.
The watch’s northern tier takes in Blaine, Garfield, Loup, and Wheeler counties in north central Nebraska — a lightly populated Sandhills corridor reaching towns including Brewster, Burwell, Dunning, Ericson, and Taylor. Custer County, anchored by Broken Bow, rounds out the five-county northern cluster.
Farther south and east, a second cluster places 18 counties under watch across central, east central, and south central Nebraska. That group includes Greeley, Howard, Merrick, Nance, Sherman, and Valley counties in the central tier; Polk and York in the east central corridor; and Adams among the south central counties. All carry the same 11 AM CDT expiration.
A third alert cluster sweeps eastern Nebraska, covering more densely populated areas. Antelope, Boone, Burt, Butler, Cass, Colfax, Cuming, Dodge, Douglas, Lancaster, Madison, Otoe, Pierce, Platte, Saline, Sarpy, Saunders, Seward, Stanton, Thurston, Washington, and Wayne counties are all included. The threat crosses the Missouri River into western Iowa as well, where Fremont, Harrison, Mills, Monona, Montgomery, Page, Pottawattamie, and Shelby counties fall under the same advisory.
At least one thunderstorm that triggered a Severe Thunderstorm Warning earlier this morning has already weakened below severe thresholds, the National Weather Service reported. That warning was allowed to expire, though the NWS cautioned that heavy rain remains possible from the weakened cell.
The breadth of the outbreak — covering a swath from the north central Sandhills to the Iowa state line — reflects an active severe weather pattern across the central Plains on Saturday morning. Conditions may shift quickly as individual cells evolve ahead of the mid-morning watch expiration.
Residents across affected counties should monitor National Weather Service updates through the 11 AM CDT deadline. Anyone who observes severe weather is asked to report it to their nearest NWS local office.
For localized morning storm tracking, see Omaha weather and Lincoln weather.