Nature’s Fury: Extreme Nebraska Weather

There is no place like Nebraska for weather. The winds blow stronger, the seasons never arrive quietly, and the storms leave marks that last generations.

Hosted by Nebraska meteorologist Ken Siemek, this one-hour documentary special revisits some of the most powerful severe weather events in state history — drawn from Nebraska Public Media's news and documentary archives.

• Tornadoes – the Easter Day storms that leveled Omaha in 1913, a 1975 twister that left a 15-mile path of destruction, the "Night of the Twisters" in Grand Island in 1980 and a 2004 tornado that demolished the town of Hallam
• Blizzards – the deadly "Children's Blizzard" of 1888 and the winter of 1948–49, which buried the state under 100 inches of snow and required military rescue efforts
• Flooding – the catastrophic 2019 floods that swept across the eastern half of Nebraska

Through it all, Nebraskans have come together, rebuilt and carried on with resilience after the skies cleared.

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