Early morning showers and thunderstorms on Monday June 15th gave way to sunny skies and humid conditions by the afternoon.  High temperatures in the 80s and dewpoints in the upper 60s and lower 70s led to extremely unstable conditions by late afternoon.  This set the stage for an extensive round of severe weather and flooding for much of central and eastern Kansas.  An area of low pressure pushed from west to east across the area during the evening hours.  Thunderstorms fired up during the late afternoon across central Kansas and increased in coverage as the evening hours progressed. 

One isolated "left mover" severe thunderstorm produced baseball size hail in Alta Vista about 745 PM.  As that storm weakened, a damaging wind producing bow echo moved from eastern Dickinson and Morris county northeastward across parts of Geary, Wabaunsee, Riley, Pottawatomie, Jackson, Nemaha and Brown counties.  Some wind gusts over 70 mph were reported with the bow echo, along with considerable tree and building damage.

Another bow echo with even stronger winds developed over Morris and western Lyon counties and pushed east at an incredibly fast 75 to 80 mph.  Extensive wind damage occurred with this line of storms over parts of eastern Morris, Lyon, Osage, Coffey, Franklin and Anderson counties.

The showers and thunderstorms finally pushed east during the early morning hours of the 16th but left a swath of damage in its wake along with numerous areas of flooding.  A summary of the severe weather reports received at the Topeka office can be found here:  Storm Report Summary for June 15th and 16th, 2009.  Here is a plot of the severe weather reports, wind (blue W) and hail (yellow H) from 3 PM June 15 to 7 AM June 16 2009.

Below are some of the images captured from the event.

This image shows the very high reflectivity near Alta Vista in Wabaunsee County.  Weather spotters reported baseball size hail with this storm.

The following 2 images shows a storm "bowing out" through Coffey, Franklin and Anderson counties.  Wind speeds of 70-80 mph were reported along its path along with widespread damage.  Click here to view an animation of reflectivity over east central Kansas from 9 PM to 1025 PM.  Frames in this loop are taken about 4.5 minutes apart.  The bow echo was sometimes moving at 70 to 80 mph.

This side by side image shows yet another bowing storm moving through Nemeha county.  60-70 mph winds and damage were reported with this storm.

Below is an image of the 24 hour radar estimated precipitation ending at 7am on June 16th.

 Here is the Regional Temp and Precip table for the morning of June 16th.

MAX/MIN TEMPERATURE AND PRECIPITATION TABLE FOR
NORTH CENTRAL...NORTHEAST AND EAST CENTRAL KANSAS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TOPEKA KS
921 AM CDT TUE JUN 16 2009

.BR TOP 0616 C DH01/TX/DH07/TAIRZP/PP/SF/SD
:
: VALUES REPRESENT YESTERDAYS HIGHS...LOW OVER THE LAST 12 HOURS
: AND PRECIPITATION OVER THE LAST 24 HRS
:                                                       SNOW   SNOW
:                                   HIGH   LOW    PCPN  FALL   DEPTH
TOP  : TOPEKA BILLARD ARPT      :     89 /  66 /  2.19 /      /
CNK  : CONCORDIA BLOSSER ARPT   :     88 /  63 /  0.84 /      /
FOE  : TOPEKA FORBES FIELD ARPT :     89 /  63 /  2.05 /      /
LWC  : LAWRENCE MUNI ARPT       :     88 /  65 /  1.95 /      /
MHK  : MANHATTAN RGNL ARPT      :     89 /  64 /  2.15 /      /
EMP  : EMPORIA MUNI ARPT        :     88 /  61 /  2.66 /      /
.END
:
.BR TOP 0616 C DH07/TX/TN/PP/SF/SD
:
: COOPERATIVE OBSERVATIONS
: VALUES ARE FOR THE PREVIOUS 24 HOURS
:
BLYK1: BAILEYVILLE      *       :     81 /  62 /  0.68 /      /
CCRK1: CLAY CENTER      *       :     88 /  64 /  0.08 /  0.0 / 0
CLIK1: CLINTON LAKE     *       :     87 /  64 /  2.83 /      /
CONK1: CONCORDIA 1W     *       :     86 /  62 /  0.90 /  0.0 / 0
CNGK1: COUNCIL GROVE LK *       :     88 /  61 /  1.77 /      /
CTLK1: COURTLAND        *       :     87 /  63 /  0.17 /      /
EPRK1: EMPORIA 3NW      *       :     89 /  60 /  4.08 /      /
ESKK1: ESKRIDGE         *       :     87 /  61 /  1.23 /      /
FRYK1: FT RILEY         *       :     88 /  63 /  1.40 /      /
HERK1: HERINGTON        *       :     88 /  61 /  3.14 /  0.0 / 0
HIAK1: HIAWATHA 9ESE    *       :     81 /  65 /  0.97 /  0.0 / 0
HRTK1: HORTON           *       :     85 /  65 /  1.52 /      /
MHTK1: MANHATTAN KSU    *       :     89 /  61 /  1.51 /  0.0 / 0
MRVK1: MARYSVILLE       *       :     84 /  64 /  0.75 /  0.0 / 0
MLFK1: MILFORD LAKE     *       :     88 /  64 /  0.45 /  0.0 / 0
MNPK1: MINNEAPOLIS      *       :     89 /  63 /  0.02 /      /
OTTK1: OTTAWA           *       :     88 /  63 /  3.42 /      /
PLKK1: POMONA LAKE      *       :     90 /  62 /  2.87 /      /
VLYK1: VALLEY FALLS     *       :     87 /  64 /  1.88 /      /
WAMK1: WAMEGO 4W        *       :     85 /  64 /  2.47 /  0.0 / 0
WMAK1: WASHINGTON       *       :     86 /  64 /  0.42 /      /
AGNK1: AGENDA           *       :        /     /  0.58 /      /
ALVK1: ALTA VISTA       *       :        /     /  1.27 /      /
BEAK1: BEATTIE 2NNW     *       :        /     /  1.02 /      /
BRPK1: BLUE RAPIDS      *       :        /     /  0.86 /      /
BRMK1: BREMEN 1E        *       :        /     /  0.62 /      /
CHLK1: CHALK            *       :        /     /  0.72 /      /
CYDK1: CLYDE            *       :        /     /  0.33 /      /
CNYK1: COLONY           *       :        /     /  2.45 /      /
DIAK1: DIAMOND SPRGS 5W *       :        /     /  1.85 /      /
ETPK1: ENTERPRISE       *       :        /     /  0.44 /      /
FRKK1: FRANKFORT        *       :        /     /  1.22 /      /
FCTK1: FACT             *       :        /     /  0.12 /      /
GLCK1: GLASCO           *       :        /     /  0.60 /      /
GOFK1: GOFF 3WSW        *       :        /     /  1.22 /      /
GRDK1: GRIDLEY          *       :        /     /  2.70 /      /
HADK1: HADDAM           *       :        /     /  0.66 /      /
LANK1: LANE             *       :        /     /  4.31 /      /
LEBK1: LEBO             *       :        /     /  2.31 /  0.0 / 0
LCTK1: LECOMPTON        *       :        /     /  2.10 /      /
LERK1: LE ROY           *       :        /     /  3.02 /      /
LLLK1: LILLIS           *       :        /     /  0.48 /      /
MCFK1: MC FARLAND       *       :        /     /  1.99 /      /
MLLK1: MILLER 4SSW      *       :        /     /  1.60 /      /
MLTK1: MILTONVALE       *       :        /     /  0.36 /      /
NRPK1: NEOSHO RAPIDS    *       :        /     /  2.28 /      /
NEWK1: NORWAY           *       :        /     /  0.11 /      /
OVRK1: OVERBROOK 7SE    *       :        /     /  2.49 /      /
RDHK1: RANDOLPH 4WNW    *       :        /     /  0.25 /      /
SCDK1: SCANDIA          *       :        /     /  0.47 /      /
SHPK1: SHARPE 3E        *       :        /     /  2.97 /      /
TESK1: TESCOTT          *       :        /     /  0.10 /      /
MTTK1: TUTTLE CREEK LK  *       :        /     /  0.91 /      /
WKEK1: WAKEFIELD        *       :        /     /  0.06 /      /
WTCK1: WHITE CITY       *       :        /     /  1.32 /      /
WLBK1: WILLIAMSBURG     *       :        /     /  3.05 /      /
WILK1: WILSEY           *       :        /     /  2.83 /      /
.END