Apr 05, 2024

Strong winds and thunderstorms moving into Kansas tomorrow

Posted Apr 05, 2024 6:38 PM
A skinny, broken line of strong to severe storms is forecast to develop and move quickly northeastward Saturday afternoon and evening. Nickel to quarter-size hail, along with wind gusts to 65 mph, will be possible with the stronger storms. Graphic courtesy National Weather Service Wichita (NWS Wichita)
A skinny, broken line of strong to severe storms is forecast to develop and move quickly northeastward Saturday afternoon and evening. Nickel to quarter-size hail, along with wind gusts to 65 mph, will be possible with the stronger storms. Graphic courtesy National Weather Service Wichita (NWS Wichita)

By OLIVIA BERGMEIER
Salina Post

The spine of the central plains will likely see a line of fast-moving storms move through tomorrow, with broken-up storms beginning in the mid to late afternoon.

Before any lightning flashes, though, most Kansans will experience sustained winds at 35 to 40 mph, with gusts that could reach almost 60 mph.

"The biggest concern that we're looking at as far as widespread is the strong gusty winds," said National Weather Service Wichita Meteorologist Bryan Baerg. "It's going to be a real thin line of thunderstorms, so maybe at any given location, you'll have storms for about 15 minutes to half an hour tomorrow, so it's not a long-duration storm event by any means."

Storms will likely begin firing off between 5 and 7 p.m., with most developing from regions of central Nebraska to south-central Kansas. Baerg said the storms will move at a blistering pace, around 50 to 60 mph, moving to the northeast.

The main concern with this weekend's system will be the straight-line winds blowing through the state. Although Baerg said it would be a robust system, cyclonic activity or tornadoes are unlikely due to the gusty surface-level winds.

"The atmosphere just has so much wind in it that when you get a storm that comes over it, it could try to mix down those winds, but shoot, even without the storms, we're going to be dealing with nearly severe-caliber winds of near 60 mph anyways," Baerg said.

The strong winds will continue through Sunday. Baerg said they will switch directions and have sustained speeds of 25 to 30 mph, with gusts reaching near 50 mph throughout the morning.

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