Bushnell, NE Hail Storm – September 2025

What Happened

A severe hail storm moved through the Bushnell, NE area on September 10, 2025, with verified stones up to 1.75 inches in the broader multi-zone report set and 1.25-inch hail in the Bushnell warning area. The event unfolded through the evening, with NWS alerts issued at 6:58 PM CDT, 7:12 PM CDT, 7:29 PM CDT, and 8:50 PM CDT.

The first two alerts carried 1.25-inch hail with radar and spotter verified confidence. A later alert at 7:29 PM CDT dropped to 1 inch, then another 1-inch alert followed at 8:50 PM CDT. Field reports showed the storm remained active well after the first warning cycle. A storm spotter reported half-dollar-sized hail in Banner County at 7:00 PM CDT. Later reports from a storm chaser near Dix, NE at 8:53 PM CDT placed quarter-sized hail in the path of the same broad system.

The strongest ground reports came from the Kimball area. At 7:58 PM CDT, a corrected report noted a storm chaser photo of 1.75-inch hail from 5 W Kimball. A second report at 8:07 PM CDT repeated the same size from social media photo evidence. Both were spotter verified. Those reports sit above the verified hail size in the warning area and show the storm producing larger stones outside the narrower Bushnell-focused alert set.

Damage Assessment

Field reports point to a hail swath with mixed surface impact across the wider western Nebraska corridor. In the Bushnell warning area, the verified hail sizes stayed at 1.25 inches and 1 inch. Near Kimball, the spotter photo reports of 1.75-inch hail raise the ceiling for the overall event and point to more severe roof and soft-surface exposure in that part of the track.

The ground reports do not show widespread structural damage language in the source set. They do show a storm capable of producing stones large enough to dent vehicle panels, mark roof systems, and leave impacts on exposed siding and outdoor equipment. The repeated spotter verification matters here because it ties the hail sizes to field observation, not just radar-derived estimates.

Banner County and the Dix area add a second band of impact on the same evening. Half-dollar hail near Banner County came early in the event. Quarter-sized hail near Dix came later. The timing suggests a storm complex that maintained hail production across multiple communities rather than one brief burst over a single point.

For owners and property managers, the likely field check list runs from roofs and gutters to vehicle lots and west-facing facades. In this case, the strongest verified hail fell outside the smallest reported Bushnell alert blocks, so inspection teams should not limit attention to the town center alone. The broader evening path included several verified hail reports spaced over nearly three hours.

What Contractors Should Know

Crews working this event should start with the Kimball-to-Bushnell corridor and widen out toward Banner County and Dix. The report set shows multiple hail sizes over the same evening, so a single address scan will not capture the full exposure pattern. Look for roof granule loss, bruised soft metals, cracked vents, and vehicle damage on exposed lots.