March 7th 2009 weak tornadoes

Severe Weather Season has arrived in Kansas. On Saturday March 7th a quasi-stationary boundary draped southwest to northeast across central Kansas. The boundary slowly drifted southeastward throughout the day. As the sky began to clear in southwestern and south central Kansas, the sun warmed the air southeast of the boundary, destabilizing it and priming the environment for the development of storms.

A few of the storms on the evening of March 7th were strong and produced a few weak tornadoes. The first severe storm developed in western Reno county producing large amounts of ¼ inch to ½ inch hail. The storm quickly developed mid-level rotation and a tornado touched down around 4:15pm near Abbyville and Partridge, KS. The tornado touched down a few times in Reno County and passed just south of the Hutchinson airport at 4:36pm. Later Wednesday evening a couple tornadoes were reported in Barber and Harper counties. Preliminary Tornado ratings for all of the tornadoes on March 7th in Reno and Harper counties are EF0. Fortunately no damage was reported with these twisters.

Radar image of 0.5 degree base reflectivity at 4:23pm

Pictures provided by Bryce Kintigh:

Photos taken South of Hutchinson, KS