Elk storm history

Extremely heavy rainfall from the end of June into early July caused flash flooding throughout Elk County. The flooding damaged or destroyed around 400 houses. This led 12 to 42 million dollars in damage. An awesome 21.49 inches of rain fell during the month of June. Much of this…

Several trees and large tree limbs were reported down corroborated from two different CO-OP observers that there was widespread tree damage across Howard. Time was estimated from radar.

Wind gusts were estimated to be around 60 mph.

The KSU mesonet measured a 62 mph wind gust.

A 64 mph wind gust was measured at the Kansas State Mesonet site located about 14 miles northwest of Howard at 2:24 PM CDT. Time and duration of high winds across the county were determined by additional surrounding reports and observations.

A snowfall total of 4.3 inches was reported about one mile north of Grenola. Based on additional and surrounding reports, around 3 to 4.3 inches of snow fell across Elk County.

A trained spotter estimated a brief gust of 60 mph winds along with dime sized hail.

A trained spotter estimated 60 mph winds and had pea sized hail.

Portions of US Highway 160 flooded between the town of Elk Falls and Dove Road, east of Moline.

Twenty four hour rainfall from COOP observer of 2.46 inches. This heavy rain resulted in some flooding of Highway 160 on the west side of town.

Twenty four hour rainfall total from CoCoRahs observer of 2.18 inches.

Twenty four hour rainfall from CoCoRaHS observer of 2.05 inches. Street flooding occurred in town during the late evening hours of the 6th.

Multiple locations along United States Highway 160 were closed due to water flowing over the roadway. Other roadways were in the area were impacted with water covering them. The Longton cooperative observer measured 6.9 inches of rain during the morning hours of the 28th. Some ro…

Observer measured 6.9 inches of rain in the last 24 hours in Longton. Flooding was reported across the county with water flowing over multiple roadways including United States Highway 160.

A multi-vortex brief tornado just south of Moline and secondary to the main rotation off to the north. No damage occurred.

A tornado was reported by law enforcement likely between Elk Falls and Longton. No damage occurred.

Trained spotters relayed report to emergency management of quarter sized hail at Kansas Highway 99 and Rock Road.

Trained spotters relayed via emergency management of ping pong ball sized hail on US Highway 160 between Moline and Grenola.

Drought conditions improved across the county with only abnormally dry (D0) conditions noted for April.

Drought conditions remained the same in the county with the southeastern areas of the county in severe drought (D2).

This is a 24 hour rainfall total of 1.44 inches.

Drought conditions remain the same across the county with Southeastern areas of the County remaining in severe drought (D2). The rest of the county was either in moderate drought (D1) or abnormally dry (D0).

A CoCoRAHs observer reported 2.5 inches of snow in Longton. This was the average snowfall across the county.

Drought conditions stayed same for the month of January across the county. The southeastern areas of the county remained in severe drought (D2) with the rest of the county remaining in moderate drought (D1) or abnormally dry (D0) for January.

Drought conditions improved from extreme drought (D3) to severe drought (D2) in the southeast portions of the county. The remaining areas of the county improved from extreme drought (D3) to moderate drought (D1) during the month of December 2023.

There was no improvement to drought conditions in the county. All areas remained in extreme drought (D3).

All areas of the county improved from exceptional drought (D4) to extreme drought (D3). Some areas of far western Elk County improved to severe drought (D2).

There was no improvement in drought conditions in the county. Most areas remained in exceptional drought (D4) with far northwestern and far northeastern areas remaining extreme drought (D3).

Elk county remained in extreme drought (D3) for the month of August.

There was a picture of at least 2-inch hail on the outskirts of Howard.

This was a measured wind gust from a Kansas Mesonet site northwest of Howard.

There was a picture on social media of at least a 1-foot diameter tree branch snapped.

There was structural damage to a previously compromised building. There was a portion of a wall collapsed.

There were pictures on social media of golf ball sized hail near Howard.

There was nickel to quarter sized hail near Elk Falls.

This was an estimated wind gusts. This was corroborated by other similar reports.

Severe drought (D3) continued in the far northeastern portions of the county with exceptional drought (D4) in the remainder of the county to start July. Conditions in the far western part of the county improved to severe drought (D3) by the end of the month with no changes elsewh…