The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch until 10 p.m. today for 23 counties in southern Kansas, including the Wichita metropolitan area.
Counties included in the watch are Allen, Barber, Butler, Chautauqua, Comanche, Cowley, Edwards, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Kiowa, Labette, Montgomery, Neosho, Pratt, Reno, Sedgwick, Stafford, Sumner, Wilson and Woodson.
Storm spotters have reported a rain-wrapped tornado five miles south of Fort Scott, moving southeast at 25 miles an hour.
A tornado warning has been issued until 2:45 p.m. for portions of Crawford and Bourbon counties in Kansas and Barton and Vernon counties in Missouri.
The Kansas border towns of Arcadia and Garland are threatened by this tornado, along with rural areas of southwest Missouri.
National Weather Service officials are warning that a rain-wrapped tornado may be on the ground east of Yates Center.
A tornado warning is in effect until 2:30 p.m. for portions of Woodson and Allen counties. Among the locations in the storm’s path are Bassett, Gas, Iola and La Harpe.
The storm is moving east at 40 mph.
Mike Phelps, a veteran storm chaser who has been filming episodes of a new series called “Drivers Who Dare” with Wichita weather photographer and storm chaser Jim Reed, is live-streaming his chase today – and his target is 30 miles west-southwest of Wichita.
Reed had to have the transmission on his Ford Explorer replaced after he got stuck in the mud in Pawnee County, Neb., and is scrambling south toward Wichita early this afternoon.
The first tornado warning of what figures to be a busy day in the region has been issued.
The National Weather Service has issued a tornado warning for Allen County in southeast Kansas until 2:15 p.m. A thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located 8 miles west of Mildred, or 9 miles northeast of Iola, and moving southeast.
That’s an uncommon track for a tornadic thunderstorm, but I’ve seen several tornadoes defy the norm this year.
Storm chasers are converging on the Wichita area today as conditions favor the development of strong thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes.
Don’t be surprised if crews from Vortex 2, the largest field experiment in history to document tornadoes, show up in the area.
Scott Roberts, who has chased storms for years for local television stations, told me he has packed up his personal documents to take with him when he goes chasing this afternoon. He’s done that two other times: April 6 of this year, and May 3, 1999. Both times saw tornadoes strike in the region.
The Storm Prediction Center has updated its convective outlook, compressing the moderate risk zone and shifting it slightly southeast from earlier this morning.
The northern boundary now more closely follows U.S. 56, not I-70, and the western edge is now closer to Pratt than Greensburg. The eastern edge of the moderate is now in western Missouri.
Cities in the moderate zone include Wichita, Wellington, Hutchinson, Pratt, McPherson, Parsons, Pittsburg, Winfield and Arkansas City.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., has upgraded the severe storms risk to “moderate” for a large segment of southern and eastern Kansas, including the Wichita metropolitan area.
The outlook warns that conditions are ripe to produce “potentially long-track supercells capable of producing a strong tornado or two later today” in southern Kansas.
“It is too early to predict exactly where greatest tornado potential will evolve,” the outlook states, but early indications point toward the Kansas/Oklahoma border – or points slightly north of there.
Which would put it awfully close to Wichita.
The moderate risk zone stretches from about Manhattan along I-70 to perhaps Ponca City south of the state line, and from Greensburg on the west to the Missouri border.
Stay tuned to forecasts, and make sure your storm shelter is ready for use.
WICHITA – Strong thunderstorms are possible this morning and again this evening in much of Kansas, including the Wichita area.
Forecasters warn that heavy rain, large hail, strong winds and even isolated tornadoes are possible with the storms. Hail could be as large as baseballs in southcentral Kansas, the National Weather Service reported.
Highs in the Wichita area should reach the low 80s. The bulk of the storms in the Wichita area should form after 4 p.m., the weather service reported.
Gusty south winds can be expected today and tonight, when lows will dip into the mid-60s. More thunderstorms are possible again on Wednesday.