Hail — Rooks, Kansas

2022-06-05 · near Stockton, Rooks, Kansas

Event narrative

The local newspaper reported that the combination of wind and hail that pummeled the area broke numerous home and vehicle windows, damaged siding and roofs, ruined gardens and stripped trees of leaves.

Wider weather episode

This Sunday afternoon-evening featured two rounds of strong to severe thunderstorms within western portions of the North Central Kansas area, both of which primarily impacted a swath running through southern Phillips, much of Rooks and far western Osborne counties. The first round, which played out between 2-7 p.m. CDT, was by far the most significant as an initially slow-moving supercell that initiated along the Phillips-Rooks County line gradually evolved into a persistent multicell cluster, dumping torrential rainfall that prompted flash flooding/flooding (especially within north central/northeastern Rooks County) and also scattered pockets of large hail up to 2 inches in diameter. The Rooks County heavy rain/flooding was the biggest story of the day, as limited gauge readings and radar estimation confirmed that roughly the northeast quadrant of the county was drenched with a widespread 2-5, including a mesonet-measured 4.39 in Stockton (the majority of which fell in 90 minutes). As a result, Stockton was at the epicenter of local flooding issues, with several city streets inundated and impassable for up to a few hours (including Highway 183), many nearby rural county roads damaged and also several area basements flooded. Adding insult to injury, the Stockton area was also pummeled by a sustained period of large hail ranging from quarter to golf ball size, breaking numerous windows in homes and vehicles, damaging siding/roofs etc. In addition to the short term flash flooding, several area creeks and rivers also experienced flooding. Official gauges that breached minor flood stage included the Bow Creek near the Rooks/Phillips County line (crested at 10.2 feet on the evening of the 5th...flood stage 9 ft.) and the South Fork Solomon River near Woodston (crested 14.3 ft. on the morning of the 6th...flood stage 12 ft.). Getting back to large hail reports during the first round of convection (and outside the immediate Stockton area), stones ranging from 1-2 diameter were also reported in or near the following towns: Plainville, Zurich, Palco and Speed. By around 7 p.m. CDT the last of the Round 1 storms departed the local area to the south, ushering in a few hours of quiet conditions. However, by 9-10 p.m. CDT Round 2 began developing over much of the same area, flaring up along the southern fringes of a convective complex approaching from southwestern/south central Nebraska. Between 11 p.m. and midnight CDT radar data suggested that a storm with potential quarter size hail traversed parts of eastern Rooks/southwestern Osborne counties, but there were no verifying reports. Up to around 1 of additional rain accompanied this second round, but fortunately it was more progressive than Round 1 and did little to exacerbate any flooding still ongoing. By midnight CDT Round 2 also departed off to the south, ending the severe storm threat for the night within North Central Kansas. Despite the various reports of hail and flooding rains, there were no verified instances of severe-criteria winds (a mesonet in Stockton peaked at 54 MPH during Round 1).

In the mid-upper levels, this event was only modestly-forced, as the region resided under broad west-northwest flow containing various low amplitude disturbances, but with increasing/respectable deep layer wind shear around 40 knots. There were no notable surface features in play, only a subtle quasi-stationary front draped in west-east fashion near the Kansas-Nebraska border. The initial supercell that kicked off Round 1 around 2 p.m. CDT developed within the eastern periphery of a mixed-layer CAPE gradient (values locally 1000-2000 J/kg) and plume of steeper mid level lapse rates centered over western KS.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (39.4200, -99.2700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1036634. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.