April 23rd severe storms & flooding

Unlike most severe weather events across Kansas, strong storms first developed during the early morning hours of Wednesday April 23rd. The severe storms erupted as a plume of mid and upper level moisture moved into the Central Plains. The image below is a short clip of water vapor satellite imagery, showing storms developing as the plume of subtropical moisture moved into Southern Kansas.

dfd

Once the storms developed around 9 am, they quickly became severe with hail up the size of golf balls reported in Marion and Butler counties.

Radar loop between 9am and 10am showing the intense storm over Marion County.

Radar loop between 11am and noon showing the severe storm affecting Southeast Reno County which produced half dollar size hail. Also notice the ongoing severe storm still affecting Marion County and now part of Chase County.

In addition to large hail and high winds, these storms also produced flash flooding which mostly affected portions of Marion and Chase Counties. The image shows where some of the heavier rain fell. These high rainfall totals, which fell in a short amount of time, caused many roads across Marion and Chase Counties to be closed due to high water.