Hail — Sedgwick, Kansas

2009-07-08 · near Wichita, Sedgwick, Kansas

Event narrative

Large Hail ranging in size from golf ball to baseball sized moved across Downtown Wichita, causing devastating damage to cars and roofs. During the half hour hail storm, thousands of cars either had roof, windshield or hood damage. Insurance agencies reported 10 to 15 thousand cars may have damaged by the hail storm. The hail was so large and numerous that it killed numerous birds in the Delano district, and injured fans at Lawrence Dumont Stadium as the hail turned the minor league baseball field white. Stain glassed windows were destroyed at Friends University and hundreds of homes and businesses received roof and window damage.

Wider weather episode

Elevated thunderstorms developed rapidly over portions of South Central Kansas during the evening hours of July 8th, 2009. As the massive storms made slow progress to the east, they produced hail up to baseball size over Downtown Wichita, Kansas. This hail lasted for almost 30 minutes producing widespread damage across Downtown Wichita and surrounding communities just to the north and east of Wichita including Newton, Hesston, Andover and Augusta. This devastating event caused over 10,000 claims to be filed with insurance agencies from damaged cars or roofs.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (37.6819, -97.3732)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 188952. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.