Tornadoes have touched down south of Garden City in southwest Kansas.
The Storm Prediction Center has logged a half-dozen reports of tornadoes in Finney and Haskell counties, though they may be the same tornado hopscotching through the region.
Damage has been reported to at least one farmstead, some power poles and an irrigation pivot system – and reports are still coming in.
Large hail – up to 1.75 inches in diameter in spots – and heavy rain have also been reported in the area. More than 4 inches of rain has fallen south of Haviland in Kiowa County.
The tornado has taken a unique track — moving first southeast, then shifting to nearly straight south. Tornadoes frequently move southwest to northeast, though others have traveled due north.
The tornado that hit Haysville and south Wichita on May 3, 1999, took a northerly track. The Greensburg tornado on May 4, 2007, also came into town from the south.
Several storm chasers are tracking the tornado, and I’m hoping to track down an image or two at some point.
This little tidbit will surprise almost no one, but I wanted to share it nonetheless.
The 5.10 inches of rain that fell Sunday set a record for most rain in Wichita on April 26. The old record was no slouch for Kansas – 1.88 inches in 1969 – but Sunday’s rainfall would have set the mark for every day in the month except April 22, when 6.03 inches fell in 1944.
Wichita is now well above normal for rainfall this calendar year, silencing the murmurs of discontent about a dry winter.
But it’ll take another 3 inches to qualify for wettest April in Wichita history. As saturated as the soils are, nobody will be thinking about the record book if another 3 inches falls over the next two days. They’ll be far more interested in high ground instead.
Waves of rain and rumbles of thunder can be expected throughout the day today as more storms move through the Wichita area.
Given the heavy rain that fell over most of southcentral Kansas last weekend, soils remain saturated – meaning street flooding is possible during and just after rainy spells, forecasters warn.
These storms are moving much faster than the nearly stationary front that pounded the region Sunday and Monday, forecasters said. As a result, less than an inch of rain is expected in most parts of the Wichita today.
Highs should reach the upper 70s today, with south winds surging from the teens to nearly 30 miles an hour.
Chances of rain will persist through Sunday, forecasters warn.