April 2nd 2014 severe storms

First Severe Storms of the 2014 Spring Season
April 2nd, 2014

A warm front lifted north across the Oklahoma/Kansas border during the afternoon of April 2nd. South of the warm front, temperatures were in the 70s with dewpoints in the upper 50s and 60s. The addition of strong shear and the location of the boundary meant that any thunderstorms that would develop could become severe. Thunderstorms developed between 5 and 6pm and persisted into the evening and overnight hours. Thunderstorms developed and moved east/northeast along the warm front over south central and southeast Kansas. Some of the storms that hugged the warm front developed good low level rotation and even some brief funnel clouds and in one case a very brief tornado touchdown in Chautauqua County.

The most significant type of severe weather to impact the region was hail up to 2 inches and excessive rainfall. Two inch hail hit much of Allen County, especially over the city of Iola. In south central Kansas 2 inch hail impacted the Kansas Star Casino near Mulvane. Multiple storms trained over Allen county, producing 3.77 inches of rain at the Iola Water Plant. This abundance of rain caused county flooding and even some river flooding along the Neosho River.

Storm Reports from 2 April 2014

Images of Hail across the area on the evening of April 2nd, 2014

2 inch hail 3 miles south of Iola #KSwx @NWSKansasCity @NWSWichita pic.twitter.com/yMCAuCBvdX
— Chad Cowan (@stormtimelapse) April 3, 2014

Quarter to golfball sized hail in Sedan, KS, from Fox23 Stormtracker Greg McLaughlin. @NWSWichita @kswx pic.twitter.com/efjr4DieDq
— James Aydelottâ˜‚âœˆ (@jamesaydelott) April 3, 2014