Power Outage in Phillipsburg, KS

Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in the destruction of an 8 foot by 12 foot shed and a grain elevator leg blown down in Stuttgart. In the Prairie View area, power lines and power poles were damaged.

Severe criteria wind gusts, peaking at 71 MPH, were measured just south of Phillipsburg. In town, a restaurant lost its roof. Power lines and large tree limbs, some 6-12 inches in diameter, were downed.

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 70 MPH. Near Prairie View, an under-construction grain bin was blown over. In Phillipsburg, several trees up to 12 inches in diameter were downed, causing power outages. A local business lost a portion of its roof.

Multiple power poles were snapped on 500 Road approximately 2 miles north of Highway 36 by wind gusts estimated near 70 MPH.

Wind gusts estimated at 70 mph, accompanied by quarter size hail. Tree limbs and power lines were blown down.

This Wednesday was only an opening act to many markedly windy days within North Central Kansas during April 2022 (per analysis of data from nearby Concordia/Hill City airports this was likely the overall-windiest April since at least 1996). Primarily between the mid-morning and late afternoon hours, sustained northwesterly winds were commonly at least 25-35 MPH with frequent gusts 45-55 MPH...and there were a few measured marginally-severe criteria gusts up to 58 MPH. The overall-strongest winds targeted Phillips, Rooks, Smith and Osborne counties, including unofficial peak gusts of 58 MPH at Phillipsburg airport (AWOS) and Logan (mesonet). Although there were no known reports of notable wind damage, the combination of strong winds and ongoing drought conditions promoted fairly widespread areas of blowing dust, reducing visibility to one mile or less in various locations. ||In the mid-upper levels, the main player in what would end up being a two-day high wind event for the local area (along with the 7th) was a powerful/deep closed low churning over the northern Minnesota/Wisconsin region. At the surface, a nearly co-located intense low pressure center bottomed out around 988 millibars across MN/WI during the day. This placed the state of Kansas in a favorable environment for high winds within the southwest quadrant of the large-scale low. At mid-day (18Z), a respectable northeast-to-southwest pressure gradient of 12 millibars was noted across the state (ranging from 1006 millibars in far northeast KS to 1018 millibars far southwest). Furthermore, steep low-level lapse rates allowed efficient downward momentum transfer from aloft during the daylight hours, with wind speeds in the 850-700 millibar layer averaging 40-50 knots.

A strong cold front brought intense non-thunderstorm and thunderstorm related wind gusts to north central Kansas on the evening of October 11th. This front entered western portions of north central Kansas between 7pm and 8pm CDT. The cold front already had a history of producing severe caliber, non-thunderstorm, straight line winds over western Nebraska and Kansas, and this trend continued along and just behind the cold front as it marched through north central Kansas. There were several reports of wind gusts of 60 to 65 mph across Phillips, Smith, and Osborne Counties. Damage reports from these areas were fairly typical for winds of this magnitude and mainly limited to tree and power line damage. Thunderstorms began to develop along the cold front as it moved farther east into Jewell County between 8:30pm and 9pm CDT. Thunderstorm intensity increased between 9pm CDT and 9:30pm CDT, such that the wind gusts produced by the thunderstorms enhanced the already-high ambient synoptically driven non-thunderstorm wind gusts associated with the cold front. This resulted in additional 60 to 65 mph wind gusts across portions of Jewell County. No specific damage reports were received from this area. Wind gusts decreased as thunderstorms exited Jewell County by 10pm CDT.||As mentioned above, the damaging wind events in the eastern half of north central Kansas were largely driven by convective winds that enhanced already-high ambient winds. Farther west, the severe wind was non-convective and driven by intense pressure rises behind the cold front on the order of 3-5 mb per 2 hrs. This event was somewhat unique due to the narrow overlap, spatially and temporally, of both convective and non-convective damaging winds.

Severe wind gusts occurred with a line of thunderstorms across portions of south central Nebraska and north central Kansas on the evening of July 2nd. Fairly typical summertime weather pattern occurred on this day in which scattered thunderstorms developed over the High Plains during the late afternoon, posing a tornado and large hail threat, then organized into a quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) as they shifted eastward through the evening into an increasing moist, and unstable environment. As is often the case with QLCS events in this part of the country during this time of year, severe wind gusts were the primary threat. Thunderstorm mergers over extreme southwest Nebraska and northwest Kansas promoted the development of a significant pool of cold air which caused a segment of thunderstorms, within the broader line of thunderstorms, to quickly accelerate eastward into western portions of the County Warning Area (CWA) between 7-8pm CDT. By the time this activity arrived it already had a history of producing widespread 60-70mph wind gusts, and even isolated 70-80+mph wind gusts in the vicinity of Hill City, Kansas. The bowing line of thunderstorms continued to produce a swath of severe winds as it moved through the southern half (or so) of the CWA through the late evening hours. For north central Kansas, severe wind reports were most concentrated across areas south of Highway 36 and west of Highway 281. The strongest reported gust was 70mph in Plainville, Kansas. Damage to trees and power lines were the main impacts of the severe wind. The strongest thunderstorm cores, on the leading edge of the QLCS, exited the area to the southeast by around midnight. Trailing stratiform rain lingered for a couple more hours.||As mentioned above, the meteorological conditions were quite typical for this area for early July. A warm and moist air mass and steep mid level lapse rates supported very strong instability (MLCAPE 4000-5000 J/kg) across a large portion of the Central Plains. A broad upper level ridge axis was in place from the southern Plains into the Upper Mississippi River Valley, resulting in weak southwesterly flow aloft. Because of the upper ridging, deep layer wind shear was weak at less than 30 knots, with much of the shear owing to veering of wind direction in the low to mid levels. This indicates that primarily mesoscale features such as an MCV and a strong cold pool were the main factors that supported severe wind in this event, and not synoptic scale features. Downdraft CAPE values in excess of 1500 J/kg were indicative of the strong potential for cool pool development.

A quick-moving line of severe thunderstorm wind gusts raced from southwest-to-northeast across parts of this six-county North Central Kansas area on this Sunday evening, mainly between 7-9 p.m. CDT. While strong gusts of 40-55 MPH were fairly common across much of the area, the primary swath of damaging winds in the 60-75 MPH range impacted Rooks, Phillips, Smith and northwestern Osborne counties. A few of the most impressive measured gusts from personal weather stations included: 75 MPH south-southwest of Stockton, 73 MPH north-northeast of Codell and 70 MPH near Damar. In addition, airport sensors at Phillipsburg and Smith Center clocked peak gusts of 62 and 59 MPH, respectively. As for actual wind damage, the majority of ground-truth reports focused in Rooks County, including downed power poles in Stockton and Zurich, and large tree branches knocked down in Plainville. ||Tracing this storm complex back to its roots, it originated in east-central Colorado during the early-to-mid afternoon, before occasionally flaring up to severe levels as it traversed parts of northwest Kansas mid-to-late afternoon. However, the aforementioned, concentrated corridor of damaging winds did not really take shape until shortly before storms entered the local area into Rooks County. In the mid-upper levels, the main instigator was a low-amplitude shortwave trough lifting east-northeast into northern Kansas from the west. At the surface, convection was largely tied to a triple point centered over western portions of the Nebraska-Kansas border, featuring the intersection of a 1000 millibar low, a north-south oriented dryline, and a northeast-southwest oriented cold front. Early evening mesoscale convective parameters in North Central Kansas featured around 1000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and 30-40 knots of effective deep-layer wind shear.

The first true near-blizzard to blizzard conditions of the 2018-19 winter season struck mainly Phillips and Rooks counties in western portions of North Central Kansas on this Thursday, causing not only many of the usual winter storm disruptions, but also snarling post-Christmas travel. Snow totals themselves were not very impressive, with reports from a combination of NWS cooperative observers and CoCoRaHS observers including: 2.5 at Logan, 2.2 east of Phillipsburg and 1.3 near Plainville. However, snowfall analysis maps and satellite imagery strongly suggest that far northwestern Phillips County likely received at least 3-4. Farther east, most of the remainder of this six-county area saw well under 1, if hardly any at all. That being said, winds were certainly a major factor, as much of the 27th featured sustained north-northwest speeds of 25-35 MPH and frequent gusts of 40-50 MPH, resulting in considerable blowing snow and reducing visibilities to well-under one mile at times. ||Breaking down event timing, and initially backing up a bit, this storm started off very similar to the one four weeks prior, and with something fairly unusual for this time of year: soaking winter rain! In fact, Wednesday the 26th featured widespread rainfall of 1-2 across all of North Central Kansas. As colder air invaded late that night, rain quickly changed to snow, with at least near-blizzard conditions already reported by sunrise in Phillips/Rooks counties. However, the majority of accumulating snow and overall-worst conditions focused between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., with very little snow thereafter. In the mid-upper levels, the primary player was a powerful, large scale trough, with its center tracking from NM on the 26th, to western KS by daybreak on the 27th, then northward across eastern NE into MN during the afternoon and evening. The associated strong surface low pressure system started the morning of the 27th over central Kansas (pressure around 996 millibars), before steadily marching to around Kansas City by mid-day and the IA/MN border by evening. On a climate-related side note, this event put an exclamation point on an incredibly wet December, as most of North Central Kansas received between 2.50-3.50 of precipitation for the month, or generally 300-500% of normal! For most official stations, it was a Top-3 wettest December on record, and was the outright-wettest at places such as Beloit.

Although most of this six-county North Central Kansas area was spared the overall-higher snow totals that slammed Nebraska counties to the north, the first two days of February nonetheless featured one of the most significant winter storms/blizzards to strike the local area in several years, with the majority of impacts occurring on Tuesday the 2nd as a crippling combination of heavy snow and strong winds closed roads and largely brought travel and commerce to a halt. With the glaring exception of the Mitchell County area (which received no more than 3 inches of snow), the majority of the five other local counties accumulated anywhere from 5-12, with the greatest concentration of 10-12 and also true-blizzard conditions focused within Phillips and Smith counties. During the height of the storm during the pre-dawn and daytime hours of the 2nd, sustained winds across most of the area averaged 25-35 MPH with gusts commonly 35-45 MPH, initially out of the northeast but gradually shifting more north-northwest with time. Given that this storm primarily struck on Feb. 2nd, many will remember it as the Groundhog Day Blizzard of 2016. ||According to several NWS cooperative observers, some of the highest storm totals featured 12.0 at Phillipsburg, 10.5 at Webster Dam, 10.2 at Lebanon, 10.0 in Logan and 9.5 at Burr Oak. In contrast, the Mitchell County area was spared significant storm impacts due the combined factors of slightly warmer air aloft keeping the initial precipitation as rain longer, followed by the fairly quick invasion of a mid-level dry slot nosing up from the south and lingering overhead through most of the event. As a result, official snow totals in Mitchell County ranged from merely 0.5 in Beloit to 3 in Cawker City. In terms of liquid equivalent precipitation, this storm brought beneficial amounts of generally 0.60-1.20 to most of the local area. At places such as Smith Center, the storm total of 0.98 boosted the entire meteorological winter into a top-10 wettest on record. ||Breaking down the timing and meteorological background of this two-day event, the initial bands of a mixed bag of light snow, sleet and rain started sneaking into the area from the southwest during the pre-dawn and daytime hours of the 1st, driven mainly by broad mid-level lift well out ahead of the primary large-scale trough approaching from the Intermountain West. Little to no snow accumulation took place through the day, although by 730 p.m. a spotter in Long Island reported 1-2. During the pre-dawn hours of the 2nd, conditions went downhill fast across most of the area as an organized, large band of moderate to heavy snow lifted across the area from south-to-north, driven by increasing synoptic-scale forcing to the north of a powerful, closed mid-level low churning into southwestern Kansas. At the same time, north-northeast winds continued ramping up in response to surface low pressure deepening to around 994 millibars over central Kansas by daybreak. Across most of the six-county area, the majority of snow had already fallen by sunrise, as most of the steady accumulation during the daytime and evening hours of the 2nd focused north of the state line in Nebraska. However, primarily northern portions of Phillips, Smith and Jewell counties saw at least a few inches of additional snow during the day within the southern end of the deformation zone associated with the nearly vertically-stacked, powerhouse low pressure system as it tracked to the KS/NE/IA/MO border area by sunset. By mid-evening, the vast majority of lingering snow ended as the surface and upper-level storm system departed into Iowa. However, travel remained dicey thanks to northerly winds still gusting 35-40 MPH. Fortunately, winds eased considerably during the overnight hours, and by daybreak on the 3rd speeds were down to 5-15 MPH. ||From a forecast perspective, this event was an overall victory. The initial Winter Storm Watch came out nearly 2.5 days in advance of the worst conditions and the first Blizzard and Winter Storm Warnings were issued nearly 36 hours before the main impacts began. In addition, although the details certainly evolved with time, this was one of those fairly rare instances where computer models correctly latched onto the likelihood for a high-impact winter storm more than a week in advance.

Between 830-930 pm CDT on this Wednesday evening, an isolated severe storm tracked northeastward through the heart of Phillips County, and likely also clipped far northwestern Rooks County within the six-county North Central Kansas area. Although radar data suggested that this storm may have produced hail up to quarter size, all ground-truth storm reports involved severe winds in Phillips County. These reports included a measured 59 MPH gust in Logan and estimated 65-70 MPH winds in a few locations between Phillipsburg and Long Island. Emergency management reported power poles downed approximately six miles northwest of Phillipsburg. ||This storm initially became severe between 800-830 pm CDT just west of the local area in Graham/Norton counties, evolving from various small clusters of strong to severe multicell convection that had been percolating in northwest Kansas since mid-afternoon. The environment was primed for severe wind gusts, given steep low level lapse rates and 25-30 F temperature-dewpoint depressions featuring temps around 90 and dewpoints in the low-mid 60s. After crossing through Phillips County and clipping extreme northwestern Smith County, this storm departed into Nebraska. Although a few non-severe storms brushed into North Central Kansas during the ensuing overnight hours, none of them were very strong, let alone severe. In the big picture of the mid-upper levels, evening convection was forced by a low amplitude disturbance ejecting northeastward across the Central Plains in south-southwesterly flow, well to the southeast of a parent closed mid level low anchored over the Montana-Alberta-Saskatchewan border area. At the surface, this storm developed in the vicinity of a quasi-stationary front aligned from west central Kansas to north central Nebraska. The early-mid evening mesoscale environment in the Phillips County area featured 2000-3000 J/kg mixed layer CAPE but only around 30 knots of 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear.

Severe weather was widespread across the Central Plains on this Wednesday, and North Central Kansas was not spared. An EF-1 tornado occurred, as well as straight-line wind damage. During the afternoon, an extensive squall line formed from north-central Nebraska to western Kansas. Around 8 pm CDT, as the squall line approached North Central Kansas, the part of the line over Norton and Graham counties surged outward, resulting in an embedded bow echo. Spotters estimated winds of 60 to 70 mph, with the main swath of damage occurring over Phillips and Smith Counties. The spotter-estimated winds were confirmed by a measurement of 58 MPH at the Smith Center municipal airport. Trees and power poles were blown down in parts of Phillips county. Some of that damage was associated with a brief, non-supercell tornado south of Prairie View. Winds were estimated as high as 90 MPH. The line weakened once it past Smith Center, but it still produced winds as high as 50 mph in some locations.||These numerous thunderstorms, and the associated severe weather, were a result of lee cyclogenesis over Colorado. A negatively tilted upper-level trough extended from Colorado southeastward to Texas, with the leading edge of a 100 knot upper-level jet streak just to the west. The atmosphere was extremely unstable. Temperatures nearing 80 degrees, with dewpoints approaching 70 degrees, resulted in MLCAPE of 3000-3500 J/kg. Deep layer shear was around 40 knots.

The Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend was one of the overall windiest days of fall 2011 across this portion of North Central Kansas, especially for areas near and west of Highway 281, where there were several hours of sustained north-northwest winds around 40 MPH accompanied by gusts around 50 MPH.||These winds occurred in the wake of a strong upper level low pressure system and associated powerful surface cold front, and were driven by the combination of a tight surface pressure gradient and deep mixing. The strongest winds buffeted the area for a 12-18 hour period, as the initial surge arrived during the pre-dawn hours. Most locations didn't reach peak intensity until late morning or early afternoon, and speeds quickly subsided by sunset or shortly thereafter. Attesting to the strength of the surface pressure gradient, 8 AM CST observations revealed an 18-millibar gradient across the state of Kansas, ranging from 1027mb in the far northwest corner of the state to around 1009mb in the far southeast. ||The combination of these strong winds, along with very low relative humidity values dropping to near 20% or lower, also resulted in elevated to critical fire danger across much of the region.

This early Tuesday evening featured the most noteworthy hail event of 2011 within this six-county area of North Central Kansas, as a pair of outflow-dominant supercells tracked southeast through portions of western Phillips, Rooks and Osborne Counties, producing hail up to softball size. The leading edge of the storms first entered southwest Phillips County near Logan shortly after 630 PM CDT, eventually exiting the area southward into central Kansas by around 830 PM. During these two hours, large hail between the size of ping pong balls and baseballs pounded several communities including Logan, Stockton, Plainville, Zurich, Damar and Palco. In Zurich, some stones were reported to be softball size. Damage reports included multiple broken windows on homes and vehicles, along with battered siding. Although large hail was the main story, damaging winds occurred in some areas as well, with reports including a few downed trees in Stockton and snapped power poles south of Alton. In addition, locally heavy rain of around 2 inches fell in parts of the area from a combination of these early evening storms and other storms that arrived later in the night, with unofficial reports of over 4 inches south of Plainville near the Ellis County line. ||This fairly concentrated bout of severe weather in Phillips, Rooks and Osborne Counties was only a small segment of a much larger northwest to southeast corridor of hail and wind that stretched hundreds of miles from southeast Wyoming to south central Kansas. Over the course of several hours lasting well into the early morning hours on the 10th, multiple supercells and multicell clusters tracked southeast along this corridor. Fortunately for this portion of North Central Kansas, the early evening storms were the only ones to impart a significant impact, as several other severe storms narrowly passed south and west of the area during the late evening and overnight hours. Between midnight and 3 AM CDT, another complex of strong storms raked across much of Phillips, Rooks and Osborne Counties, but these were reportedly not severe. ||The initial early evening hail-producing supercells had been taking aim on North Central Kansas for several hours, first becoming severe in west central Nebraska during the early afternoon as they tracked nearly due southeast. The synoptic and mesoscale environment was quite supportive of this type of northwest flow severe event, with early evening parameters featuring unseasonably strong deep layer vertical wind shear of 50-60 knots, along with mixed-layer CAPE between 1000-2000 J/kg. The strong west-northwest flow aloft was directed along the far southern periphery of a deep low pressure system crossing Ontario. At the surface, North Central Kansas was positioned near a west-northwest to east-southeast oriented quasi-stationary front, with low level easterly flow helping to enhance shear parameters.

While a significant severe weather outbreak with several strong tornadoes struck parts of northwest Kansas to the west, and south central Nebraska to the north on this Monday afternoon, this-six county area in North Central Kansas almost missed out on severe weather entirely. A major exception was across the far northwest corner of Phillips County. Shortly before 3 PM CDT, an EF1 tornado crossed out of Norton County five miles west of the community of Long Island, and moved northeast. During its short stay in Phillips County, this tornado damaged a few farm buildings before the parent supercell storm went on to spawn another tornado in Harlan County Nebraska. Prior to entering Phillips County, this tornado tracked for several miles in eastern Norton County, striking several farms and completely destroying a residence. ||This portion of North Central Kansas was fortunate, largely missing out on severe weather through the entire afternoon and evening, despite several supercells impacting areas just to the west, north and east. This was largely due to the fact that these six counties remained anchored almost directly underneath the mid-level dry intrusion, with the parent mid-level low pressure system centered just to the west. As a result, tornadic thunderstorms focused to the north in Nebraska near a lifting warm front, while non-tornadic severe storms developed just east of the area near the Highway 81 corridor along a surging dryline.||This regional severe weather outbreak was driven by a powerful mid-level low pressure system lifted into western Kansas and Nebraska out of Colorado, deepening and closing off as it did so. Strong wind fields aloft were in place at all levels, with a 50-70 knot jet streak nosing into the region between the 500 and 300 millibar level, and an 850-millibar low-level jet accelerating to between 30 and 40 knots. At the surface, a well-defined 992-millibar low pressure center migrated from near Rooks County around the noon hour, to near Hastings, Nebraska, by early evening. A synoptically classic array of surface boundaries evolved around this low pressure center. Around the time of the Phillips County tornado, favorable mesoscale parameters of shear and instability included approximately 50 knots of deep-layer vertical wind shear, 20 knots of 0-1 kilometer low-level vertical wind shear, 200 m2/s2 of surface-to-1 kilometer storm-relative helicity and 3000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE.

The same powerful, vertically stacked low pressure system that brought severe thunderstorms to North Central Kansas on Thursday the 14th continued to impact the region into Friday the 15th, featuring very strong northwest winds and seasonably chilly temperatures. The strong winds were driven by a tight surface pressure gradient on the backside of the departing low. At noon, the surface low center was near Kansas City with a strength of 996 millibars, while across far western Kansas surface pressures were analyzed at around 1016 millibars, resulting in a 20-millibar gradient across the state. In between, all of North Central Kansas experienced strong northwest winds through the day and into the evening hours, with frequent sustained speeds to around 40 MPH or higher, and occasional gusts into the 55-60 MPH range. One of the top measured gusts was 61 MPH at the Phillipsburg airport. Also in Phillips County, the high winds peeled a large piece of rubberized coating from the high school track in Logan. These winds made for a very raw mid-April day, when combined with passing light rain showers and afternoon temperatures only topping out in the low to mid-40s.

Thunderstorms pushed southeast through North Central Kansas as an upper level disturbance crossed the region. Available shear and instability aided the developement of a severe thunderstorm in Phillips County, which dropped hail to the size of quarters and produced 60 to 70 mph wind gusts. Along with these damaging winds, which knocked down tree limbs and power lines, heavy rain fell, with over 2.5 inches reported in Phillipsburg.

A wide variety of significant winter weather began impacting portions of north central Kansas. Freezing rain, sleet, and snow began early Saturday morning mainly along highway 183 and spread east during the day. This led to significant ice accumulations which continued through Saturday night. Many locations received at least one half inch of ice. The deposits of ice have caused widespread tree damage, along with power outages, and damage to power lines and poles.

Winds of 40 to 60 mph combined with 2 to 7 inches of snow resulted in a blizzard which raged across parts of north central Kansas on November 27 and 28. In open country, "white out" conditions were reported throughout the event. Motels were full in north central Kansas with stranded travelers who had left to go home after the holiday weekend, only to stay a few extra days due to the storm. Interstate 70 was closed west of Russell, and numerous other highways were impassable during the storm. There were several reports of minor auto accidents and sporadic power outages during the storm. The wind whipped the snow into drifts 10 to 15 feet high in some places.

An early morning hail and wind storm mowed down wheat and alfalfa fields, and fell many power poles in Phillips and Rooks counties. The storms moved south from south-central Nebraska and pummeled the area with hail, which drifted a foot deep, and wind gusts to 70 mph. Power poles were reported down all across Rooks county. Crop damage alone was estimated at about 4 million dollars.

A couple of intense thunderstorms developed in southern Phillips county, then moved south and spawned several tornadoes. One tornado did produce some damage to outbuildings, power lines, and trees on a farmstead 2 miles northwest of Stockton.

Late evening thunderstorms produced strong outflow winds up to 80 mph, which damaged farm buildings and a storage silo near Natoma. Thirteen power poles were snapped at ground level. Earlier in the day, a funnel cloud was spotted by the Kansas Highway Patrol north of Speed.

A ferocious severe thunderstorm moved south from Nebraska and battered a section of north-central Kansas with high winds and hail. Phillips and Rooks counties took the brunt of this mid-evening storm as losses in these two counties alone totaled in the millions. The Long Island area of northern Phillips county sustained the most damage. Winds of 100 mph hammered the area around 7 pm and hail covered the ground like snow. Over 300 windows in this small town were broken and nearly every home in the town sustained some damage to windows, siding or the roof. One person was injured as she and her family tried to run for cover from the storm. The wind blew her across the kitchen of her home and into the dining room. She sustained head, neck and leg injuries and was transferred to a hospital in Kearney, Nebraska. The local grain company had seven grain bins and two unloading facilities demolished. About 1200 customers lost power during the storm. Wind gusts to 80 mph and hail the size of quarters were also reported in Agra and Logan.As the storm moved south into Rooks county, it spawned a brief tornado north of Webster Lake. The funnel set down about 1 mile north of the reservoir but did little if any damage. Just days earlier, outdoor warning devices were installed at the lake area and they were put into use to alert the public on this day. Eighty mile an hour winds were common in Rooks county and resulted in up-rooted trees, downed power lines, roof and building damage. One truck was overturned on Highway 24 but the driver was uninjured.Crop damage was limited to the remaining wheat crop and some corn. Fortunately, about 80 percent of the wheat crop had been harvested prior to the storm.

Thunderstorms drifted south into northern Kansas shortly before midnight and produced high winds and hail. Strong winds in the Smith Center area caused the most damage by ripping a roof from a garage and falling a few power lines.