By SALINA POST
Friday was a wild and windy weather day across the area.
Wind advisories began kicking in early Friday afternoon, and by the middle of the afternoon, much of the area was under a tornado watch.
READ: NWS reports four tornadoes in Marion County Friday
In the early evening, strong to severe storms began firing up north and east of Salina, prompting tornado warnings for parts of Cloud, Dickinson, and Republic counties, and numerous severe thunderstorm warnings. According to the National Weather Service, tornadoes were reported near Hillsboro and Herington. Additionally, spotters reported funnel clouds near Clyde, north of Durham, and east of Abilene.
The storms also dropped hail, some of it quite large. Grapefruit- and softball-sized hail was reported south of Enterprise at approximately 6:45 p.m.
Strong winds continued to be a factor through the evening. At 8 p.m., the National Weather Service reported "widespread 60 to 80 mph winds and locally higher were occurring behind a cold front in central Kansas." A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 79 mph was reported at the Salina Regional Airport at 8:18 p.m.
Those strong winds, coupled with dry conditions, prompted the National Weather Service to issue a dust storm warning for Ellsworth, Lincoln, McPherson, and Saline counties until 9 p.m. Friday. The strong winds "resulted in visibilities in blowing dust less than one-half mile to near zero in some places," the weather service noted.
Rainfall across the area varied from nothing to 1.31 inches reported six miles north-northeast of Chapman.
The weather also knocked out power to parts of the area. In Salina, 3,449 Evergy customers were without power at approximately 9 p.m. Friday. As of 9:55 a.m. Saturday, fewer than five remained without power, according to the Evergy outage map.
Likewise, 264 DS&O Electric Cooperative customers were reported to have lost power Friday night. As of 9:55 a.m. Saturday, no outages were reported.
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Eagle Radio's Randy Picking contributed to this story.