Tornado Warnings and Funnel Clouds Reported on Tuesday April 16, 2024

At 4:00am, the Stanton County Emergency Management Agency started monitoring severe weather conditions as they approached Northeast Nebraska. Around 08:00am, storms started to intensify south of Stanton near Columbus and Platte Center, and by 8:30am, the first Tornado Warning was issued for Stanton County. The warning that was issued was for a possible tornado threat indicated by radar, however we had two spotters out watching the system and did not see any tornado on the ground. The National Weather Service in Valley also cancelled the warning early, as the threat on radar weakened as it moved north.  As those storms moved north and east, they produced numerous funnel clouds and even a few brief tornadoes in Platte and Colfax Counties. While Stanton County saw three tornado warnings issued, there were no reports of an actual tornado or damage reported! Stanton County did see excessive rainfall amounts that produced numerous flash flood and aerial flood warnings as the system made its way through. Rainfall amounts from 3-5" were widely reported throughout the county with an additional 1-2" expected between Wednesday night through Thursday morning.