High Wind — Sherman, Kansas

2020-10-11 · Sherman, Kansas

Event narrative

A strong front moved southeast across Sherman County producing winds with gusts between 55-80 mph. In northern Sherman County, up to 70 mph wind gusts were observed for a duration of one hour and 50 minutes. These strong winds snapped an 8 inch diameter tree limb off a fruit tree and another tree to fall, which crushed a fence, in Goodland. The Goodland ASOS observed a peak gust of 66 mph during the event. The high winds also caused blowing dust to occur, which reduced visibilities between one mile to a few hundred yards.

Wider weather episode

A strong southeastward cold front produced high wind gusts ranging from 27 to 81 mph. These high winds lasted for various durations of time, ranging from six minutes to one hour and fifty minutes after frontal passage. The high winds produced blowing dust with visibilities reduced to between one mile to as low as 10 yards at times across northwest Kansas. The strong winds knocked a few power lines down in Graham County which sparked a few small fires around the county and were quickly put out. The strong winds also caused a manure fire in southern Logan County to get out of hand; however, it was contained without causing damage. The most notable fire caused with this event was a grass fire caused from the embers of a burning trash fire in Graham County, which caused town-wide evacuations of Nicodemus. No injuries or structural damage occurred.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 925653. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.