High Wind — Wichita, Kansas

2025-03-14 · Wichita, Kansas

61 MG

Magnitude

Event narrative

The Leoti airport AWOS reported gusts up to 70 MPH and 67 MPH winds as the cold front moved over the site. Cold front entered the county around 1330 LST. Two large trees were blown over in town, an elm tree and a pine tree. Part of the elm tree fell on a house. Four roofs in town had damage varying from part edge of the roof being blown off to the entire roof being taken off down to the supports. A quarter mile west of the CR 10 and Hwy 96 intersection a metal roof was blown off an open sided shed. The high winds broke a power line line leading to a structure housing a water well north of CR L between CR 4 and 5. The structure completely burned.

Wider weather episode

A strong cold front moved east through Northwest Kansas during the afternoon. As the cold front moved into Kansas, a wall of dust formed along the front, with the blowing dust continuing for hours afterward. As the front moved through, visibility fell immediately to near zero or lower. East ahead of the front scattered showers formed that wet the ground enough to greatly reduce the amount of dust able to blow around. Just behind the front showers formed. As the showers moved through wind gusts increased, then fell as the showers moved on. Wind gusts up to 70 MPH were reported behind the cold front due to either the large scale weather system or from the showers moving through.

There were multiple locations across Northwest Kansas that had vehicle accidents due to people stopping on the highway when they were not able to see in the blowing dust. The only accident that had fatalities or injuries was the one in eastern Sherman County. I-70 from Goodland to Colby was closed for more than 12 hours. The I-70 accident was the largest accident in the last 30 years according to the Highway Patrol. Highway 40 was closed from Sharon Springs to Oakley due to the dust storm and an accident.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1241098. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.