A tornado that plowed through rural parts of a central Nebraska county on Saturday damaged some outbuildings and power lines, but no injuries were reported.
Meteorologist Christina Henderson of the National Weather Service office in North Platte said a trained spotter saw the twister at 12:23 p.m. CST south of Arnold in Custer County and that it had lifted by 12:55 p.m., still south of Arnold.
The Custer County sheriff’s office said the power lines were knocked down about five miles north of the Dawson County line.
A dispatcher who would not give his name said he had reports of two tornadoes, but it was unclear whether it was the same tornado spotted by two or more people.
The National Weather Service office in Valley reported another tornado was spotted near Glenwood, Iowa, about 22 miles southeast of Omaha, at 7:16 p.m. CST.
Tornadoes were also confirmed in Blaine County, east of Dunning, and about 20 miles south of Ainsworth in Brown County, but damage reports were not available Saturday.
Severe weather was in line for much of Nebraska Saturday.
The weather service posted tornado warnings for Perkins County in the southwest corner of the state and, north and east, in Custer, Blaine, Brown and Keya Paha counties. It also posted tornado watches for an area 60 miles east and west of a line from Thurston County in northeast Nebraska to 40 miles south of Manhattan, Kan.
“This is a particularly dangerous situation,” the weather service said as it also warned of hail up to 3 inches in diameter and thunderstorm wind gusts to 80 mph.
It said the air mass has become very unstable and that conditions “will support tornadic supercells across the watch area” through at least 10 p.m.
Flood warnings were posted for several counties in central Nebraska and Kansas through Sunday.
Officials in Saunders County were reporting water over roadways near Cedar Bluff, including U.S. Highway 77, Saturday evening, the weather service said.
The weather service forecast some severe thunderstorms Sunday from U.S. Highway 83 to the east. Another storm system moving out of Colorado was expected to bring thunderstorms to the Panhandle in the afternoon.
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Associated Press writer Timberly Ross contributed to this report.
