Meteorologists at the National Weather Service in Wichita are taking a closer look at the bow echo storm complex that hammered the Flint Hills late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.
Like most bow echo storms, this one produced strong straight line winds - at least 100 miles an hour in eastern Butler County, officials reported - and locally heavy rains.
But bow echoes typically form in conditions where there’s warmer air at the ground’s surface and cooler air in the upper atmosphere, said Rob Cox, a meteorologist with the weather service.
With Monday night’s storm, “there was a lot of warmer air aloft, over a cold dome,” Cox said. “This actually penetrated through an inversion.”
“It’s pretty neat - we’re in the process of studying this one, just to see how those winds were able to transport their way to the ground.”
The storm damaged or flattened more than 200 utility poles in Butler County alone and damaged homes and outbuildings in the Flint Hills between El Dorado and Cassoday. Still more damage was reported in Lyon County.