Overview
- A cluster of intense supercells, which intensified Saturday, merged into a cold‑pool‑driven mesoscale convective system that moved southeast across western and central Kansas.
- NWS storm products and field reports recorded multiple measured gusts over 90 mph near Colby, Kansas, and warned of a focused severe‑wind swath with isolated gusts potentially reaching 85–100 mph.
- The Storm Prediction Center issued a series of watches—starting with Tornado Watch 357 and followed by Severe Thunderstorm Watches including 358, 361 and 362—covering parts of Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, the Texas panhandle and western Missouri.
- The Weather Prediction Center and regional mesoscale products highlighted training storms with hourly rates of 2–3+ inches and isolated 3–5+ inch totals, making flash flooding likely across central and eastern Kansas where soils were already saturated.
- Forecasters said the system also produced very large hail, posed significant aviation hazards from extreme turbulence and surface gusts, and that although nocturnal cooling has led to some weakening, localized wind, hail and flood threats could persist and shift downstream in the morning.