Storms moved across south-central Kansas late Thursday afternoon into the early evening, dropping hail up to softball-size, and producing multiple weak landspouts.
Those weak tornadoes form from the ground up and aren’t as dangerous because of the disorganized circulation at the surface that gets pulled upward.
The first landspout was reported before 7:00 p.m. Thursday, about five miles from Newton in Harvey County. Within a half-hour, sirens sounded and a Tornado Warning was issued for northern portions of Sedgwick County where the weather formations were occurring.
That activated live radio coverage for Operation StormWatch on 98.7 and 1330 KNSS.
Landspout tornadoes were also reported during the next 40 minutes six miles from Valley Center in Sedgwick County, in the Whitewater area in Harvey and Butler counties, and near Burns in Marion County.
Softball- and baseball-sized hail fell about five miles from Marion, in Marion County, late in the afternoon. Hail bigger than large apples fell to the west of Wellington in Sumner County late in the afternoon as well.
