Power Outage in Plainville, KS

A pair of wind-driven wildfires affected southern portions of Rooks County. These fires started in the afternoon hours of the 15th, and while they were largely under control by the early morning of the 16th, small flare-ups were a concern for a few more days. The suspected cause of these fires was downed power lines due to strong winds, which gusted up to around 90 MPH at times. The larger fire in southwest parts of the county burned approximately 6,137 acres, scorching along a nearly 1 mile wide and 11 mile long path from approximately two miles south-southeast of Damar (along Highway 18) to three miles northwest of Plainville. Although the fire was contained before reaching Plainville, a fire truck was proactively staged at the local hospital, just in case. Meanwhile, in the southeast part of the county, a smaller fire consumed approximately 1,932 acres along a path running from around two miles north through five miles east of Codell. Though no homes were lost in these two fires, several older outbuildings and one oil rig were burned. In the wake of the fires, it was noted that the ground was scoured clean in some areas as the ferocious winds easily swept away soil where grass had burned away.

A 71 MPH wind gust was measured by a mesonet site located near Plainville. Emergency management and media confirmed considerable tree damage in Plainville, along with a roof blown off of a former lumberyard and all but the bottom section of a county communications tower toppled to the ground. Three transformers were struck by lightning and power lines were downed. An NWS cooperative observer located 4 miles west-northwest of Plainville reported multiple tree limbs downed and chimney damage to their home. A semi-truck was blown over approximately 5 miles south of Plainville.

Wind gusts estimated to be near 70 MPH resulted in some downed power lines.

Law enforcement estimated wind gusts to be between 70 and 80 MPH. Emergency management reported power lines down in and around Zurich. A garage was destroyed 2 miles east of Zurich.

This tornado, the second to affect Rooks County on this day, touched down approximately 4 miles south of Codell, moved northeast and lifted appoximately 2 miles southeast of Codell. Damage along its path was confined to trees, fencing and several power poles. The maximum wind speed was estimated to be 110 MPH.

Numerous tree branches were downed, some up to 6 to 7 inches in diameter. A hog facility building suffered roof damage and a cement block wall collapsed. A few power poles in the area were damaged.

This tornado touched down approximately 5 miles northwest of Webster State Park. Maximum wind speeds were estimated to be 110 MPH, with broken power poles and damaged fencing reported.

This brief tornado snapped a few power poles east of Zurich.

This brief tornado snapped a few power poles east of Zurich.

This brief tornado damaged a few power poles southwest of Zurich.

A brief touchdown was observed by local law enforcement. They were able to see a few flashes as power poles were snapped by the tornado.

A brief touchdown was observed by local law enforcement. They were able to see a few flashes as power poles were snapped by the tornado.

The tornado entered from Ellis County and quickly dissipated. The tornado damaged some trees, snapped power poles and an outbuilding.

A tornado destroyed an electrical substation, several power poles and three outbuildings along its path through central Rooks County.

A strong storm system brought cold rain, wet snow, and strong winds to north central Kansas during the early morning and daytime hours of March 22nd. A potent, neutral to negatively tilted upper trough tracked south of the local area, generally from southern Kansas and northern Oklahoma into Missouri. This placed north central Kansas within the northern semi-circle of the storm system and under a broad swath of deformation precipitation, which was much needed after a fairly dry winter. For the most part, temperatures remained just warm enough to keep most of the precipitation as a rain and snow mix, or just a cold rain. However, between 2AM CST and 11AM CST, rain was able to change over to mostly wet snow across far southern portions of Rooks and Osborne counties. In fact, a Cooperative Observer a few miles west-northwest of Plainville recorded a snow amount of 6.7 inches. Other observations around the Plainville area were generally 3 to 6 inches. Most of Osborne County likely only received a trace to 1 inch of snow, but the far southwest corner of the county received 1 to 3 inches. Another aspect of the strong storm system was high wind gusts. Wind gusts over 45 MPH were common, especially during the daytime hours of the 22nd, and there was even one measured wind gust as high as 58 MPH in Jewell County. As a result of the combination of strong wind, wet snow, and ice, a local utility company stated that the Osborne service area sustained significant damage to power lines and power poles.

A wildfire occurred east of Webster State Park on this Friday afternoon. This fire started on Highway 24 between county roads 11 and 12, and then spread approximately 5 miles to the southeast. The fire was contained by 8 PM, though crews monitored hot spots into the next day. A faulty lightning arrester on a power pole was suspected as the cause of the fire. A portion of Highway 183 was closed for a time, and mutual aid was provided from neighboring counties as well as private companies and farmers. The city of Stockton issued an evacuation order for the south part of town.||An anomalously warm air mass was in place, and the region was in the warm sector of a low pressure center over Ontario, Canada. A very weak cold front extended southwest from the low across the Northern Plains at 6 AM CST. This front was moving rapidly south, and it crossed Rooks County around noon. Northwest winds increased significantly behind the front. The peak wind gust at the Stockton airport was 55 mph measured at 1:02 PM CST. A high temperature in the lower 80s occurred just after frontal passage, and this was over 30 degrees above normal. A record high of 83 occurred at Hill City, one county to the west. With dewpoints falling into the lower 30s, this resulted in relative humidity values in the middle to upper teens.

Although snow amounts ended up lower than suspected a few days beforehand, this was nonetheless the first real snow event (meaning at least 1-3 inches) of the winter season for much of this six-county North Central Kansas area. All snow accumulation occurred between the evening of Sunday the 13th and the very early morning hours of Monday the 14th. Snow amounts varied considerably across the area, ranging from one-half inch or less in some places, to as high as 4 in parts of mainly Rooks and Osborne counties. According to NWS cooperative observers, some of the highest totals featured 4.0 at Covert rural station (nine miles east-northeast of Natoma), 3.0 in Natoma, 3.4 four miles west-northwest of Plainville and 2.2 at Lebanon. Despite north-northwest winds gusting up to around 30 MPH, the very wet nature of this snow greatly minimized blowing/drifting. Speaking of wet, when all was said and done, the wintry aspect of this event was not even the big story locally. Instead, it will be most remembered for soaking rainfall (and even a few thunderstorms initially), which was the primary precipitation type from when precipitation first broke out on the evening of the 12th until the changeover to a mix of rain, snow and even some sleet on the evening of the 13th. Storm total precipitation averaged 2.00-2.50 across most of the area, providing very beneficial early-winter moisture. Just to name a few, two-day precipitation totals included 2.52 at Beloit, 2.43 at Phillipsburg and 2.31 in Burr Oak. Put another way, this event alone provided generally two to three times as much December precipitation as the 30-year monthly normal/average. ||Breaking down timing, steady rain got underway on the evening of the 12th into the early morning of the 13th and persisted through most of the day before a brief lull arrived later in the afternoon. This first wave of precipitation focused well out ahead of a powerful, closed mid level low pressure system that churned across the Texas Panhandle into western Oklahoma during the day of the 13th. Then, round two of the event, during which all snow accumulation occurred, began on the evening of the 13th in the form of a classic, generally north-south oriented deformation zone tied to the northwest quadrant of the mid level low. All local precipitation ended by daybreak on the 14th as the center of this mid level circulation departed east-northeast to the IA/MO/IL border area. From a forecast perspective, it appeared 36 to 48 hours in advance that a more widespread snowfall of 4-7 might occur. However, as time went by, it became increasingly-apparent that low-level temperatures would remain quite marginal for appreciable snow production.

This was a unique Tuesday afternoon and evening of weather within North Central Kansas, as winter and spring collided to produce showers and elevated thunderstorms with a varied mix of sleet, hail and freezing rain. This was all made possible by strong frontogenesis and easterly warm air advection evident at 850 millibars flowing over the top of a shallow, cold low level airmass featuring mid-afternoon surface temperatures generally between the upper-20s and mid-30s through most of the six-county area, or 30+ degrees below normal for the date. In addition to widespread accumulating sleet in several spots, there were a few reports of hail ranging from dime to ping pong ball size in Rooks County between 230-530 PM CDT, and likely several other instances of hail across the area that are not known. To cite just one example of the unusual nature of this event, as ping pong ball size stones fell near Plainville around 245 PM CDT, the surface temperature at nearby Hill City airport was 27 degrees and north winds were sustained around 25 MPH, yielding a wind chill temperature around 12 degrees. Despite this very cold surface regime, elevated thunderstorms thrived in an environment featuring most unstable CAPE of 500-1000 J/kg and 30-50 knots of effective deep layer vertical wind shear. ||Thunderstorms first broke out within this portion of North Central Kansas between noon and 3 PM CDT, primarily in Rooks and Phillips counties. By this time, the area was already positioned well to the west of a sharp synoptic cold front extending from extreme southeast Nebraska into south central Kansas. During the rest of the afternoon and lasting through around 9 PM CDT in the evening, multiple clusters and line segments of fast-moving elevated storms streamed north-northeast across the six-county area while gradually ending from west to east. On the synoptic scale aloft, this event occurred just downstream from a powerful, closed mid level low centered over Colorado, which anchored an expansive and highly-amplified longwave trough dominating the western half of the United States. The rapid increase in afternoon thunderstorm development was aided by the arrival of the exit region of a 100+ knot south-southwest jet streak evident at 300 millibars. As it turned out, the 9th marked the first of three consecutive notably cold April days, as temperatures across most of this area failed to exceed the low-40s through the 11th.

Large upper level trough over the western U.S. continued to eject energy out over the Central Plains, with a surface low remaining anchored over eastern Colorado with a stationary boundary draped east through the region. Storms once again initially developed during the late afternoon near the dry line over western Kansas and drifted east; with the increase of the low level jet helping storms which had developed along the stationary front continue on well into the late evening hours. In north-central Kansas, storms produced hail mainly one inch in diameter. Baseball sized hail was reported south of Zurick in southern Rooks County. A couple of brief tornadoes sat down in Rooks County. One tornado occurred just to the north of the Ellis/Rooks County line. This tornado snapped several power poles, damaged trees and an outbuilding. The second tornado started near Plainville and lifted just north of Codell. Several power poles were downed as well as trees damaged. It was another night of efficient storms in regard to rainfall, dropping several inches over portions of north-central Kansas, causing additional problems.

Evening thunderstorms rolled across north-central Kansas produced areas of severe weather. Hail was reported in Rooks and Jewell counties, while strong winds caused some damage in Smith County. The Lebanon Times newspaper reported that the strong winds downed electric poles in the Bellaire area. This caused the power to be out in Bellaire and Lebanon for nearly two hours. Some hail accompanied the strong winds, which cut cornfields down to just short stocks.

Severe thunderstorms producing large hail and damaging winds ripped across north central Kansas during the afternoon hours. There were reports of power poles snapped across several counties. Power was out for up to 12 hours in some localized spots. South of Smith Center, a semi-tractor trailer was tipped over by the strong winds. No injuries were reported. South of Osborne, milo fields were heavily damaged by wind driven hail.