The National Weather Service office in Wichita has offered five finalists:
The powerful thunderstorms of April 7-8, which hammered Butler and Harvey counties with straight-line winds of between 90 and 100 miles an hour.
A series of powerful thunderstorms on May 1, which produced no large tornadoes but affected most of the 26 counties in the Wichita branch’s coverage area.
The strongest tornado of the year hit the south side of Salina and surrounding rural areas on the night of June 11. The tornado had a 14-mile track and an maximum strength of EF3 as it tore through portions of Salina shortly before 10 p.m.
The same storm system produced tornadoes that slammed into Chapman, Manhattan and Soldier, killing two people and causing more than $40 million in damage. A woman was killed in Chapman and a man killed in Soldier. Here’s a photo of the Chapman tornado, taken by Scott Blair near I-70.

The weather event foremost in Wichita’s mind from 2008 is likely the torrential rains that dropped more than 10 inches of rain on the city over a 24-hour period on Sept. 12. That easily surpassed the old record set in 1911. Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the record-setting rain was the fact that flooding was pretty limited.
The list does not include a tornado that killed two people on U.S. 400 near Pratt on May 23, because that occurred just outside of Wichita’s coverage area, warning coordination meteorologist Chance Hayes said.
What’s your choice for the biggest local weather story of 2008?
My vote would go for the tornadoes that hit Chapman, Manhattan and Soldier, because of the high price paid, with an honorable mention to the record-setting rain.