For a few hours on this Sunday afternoon, a concentrated zone of several strong to severe thunderstorms streamed through eastern portions North Central Kansas, almost exclusively affecting Mitchell and eastern Jewell counties within the local area. Based on a number of storm reports, this was mainly a hail and heavy rain/flooding event, as there were only a few reports of slightly sub-severe wind gusts. Hail-wise, there were several reports of stones ranging from quarter all the way up to tennis ball size, primarily within a 10-mile radius of Beloit, and with stones to at least ping pong ball size falling in the city itself. Overall though, the biggest story of the afternoon ended up being flooding, as the slow-moving, training corridor of intense convection dumped at least 1.50-2.50 of rain over much of Mitchell and far southeastern Jewell counties, with a concentrated zone of higher totals right around 3 centered within and very near Beloit. Given that most of this rain fell within a two-hour period between 4-6 pm CDT, flash flooding ensued in the immediate Beloit area, including water covering portions of Highways 24 and 14.
In the days and even hours leading up to this event, it appeared that severe thunderstorms might develop farther west and thus pose an overall more widespread and significant threat within the local six-county area. However, a slow-moving, northeast-southwest oriented cold front shifted through most of the area during the day, and by the time convective initiation occurred, this primary low-level convergence zone focused severe storms only within the far-eastern local counties. Timing-wise, severe convection first flared up between 3-4 pm CDT, as seasonably-strong forcing along the front quickly resulted in a messy storm mode with numerous cell mergers and eventually an almost solid line of convection. On a positive note, this storm mode helped prevent the establishment of discrete supercells and a potential tornadic threat. Locally, storm coverage peaked between 400-630 pm CDT, before the main corridor of convection gradually departed southward and eastward into central and northeast Kansas. Although additional thunderstorms affected parts of North Central Kansas well into the night, none of them were severe.
On the synoptic and mesoscale levels, this was a rather potent late-summer severe weather setup. In the mid and upper levels, a broad, seasonably strong trough shifted eastward out of the Rockies into northern Kansas, accompanied by an upper level jet streak and resultant increase in upper level divergence. Meanwhile, low-level forcing focused along the aforementioned cold front as surface temperatures climbed to around 90 F and dewpoints averaged well into the 60s. Instability and shear parameters were certainly supportive of supercell development along the front, as mixed-layer CAPE climbed into the 2000-3000 J/kg range in the presence of 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear around 40 knots.

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 15:17:00 to 31-AUG-14 15:17:00 (CST-6)
Location: GLEN ELDER
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Golf ball size hail occurred along with estimated 45 mph wind gusts at Glen Elder State Park. Nickel size hail was reported in the town of Glen Elder two minutes earlier at 4:15 p.m. CDT.

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 15:47:00 to 31-AUG-14 15:47:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT ARPT
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 15:50:00 to 31-AUG-14 15:50:00 (CST-6)
Location: RANDALL
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Ditches eventually filled from heavy rain falling along with the golf ball hail, and immediately following the large hail.

Heavy Rain in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 15:00:00 to 31-AUG-14 23:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: SCOTTSVILLE
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Storm-total rainfall of 3.02, the majority of which fell between 4-6 pm CDT.

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:01:00 to 31-AUG-14 16:01:00 (CST-6)
Location: GLEN ELDER
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:21:00 to 31-AUG-14 16:21:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT ARPT
Magnitude: 2.50 
Property damage: 75.00K
Crop damage: 125.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:26:00 to 31-AUG-14 16:26:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 250.00K
Crop damage: 1.00M
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Both law enforcement and CoCoRaHS observers reported a significant hail storm in Beloit, with comments including: all tender vegetation destroyed and damage to trees, buildings and automobiles.

Flash Flood in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:42:00 to 31-AUG-14 20:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: SIMPSON
Flood cause: Heavy Rain
Property damage: 10.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Flooding was reported at 5:42 p.m. CDT in Beloit, and to the north and east of Beloit. Also, Highways 24 and 14 had water over the road, near Beloit. At 6:48 p.m. CDT, water was reported to be over Road K194, north of Simpson.

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 14:50:00 to 31-AUG-14 14:50:00 (CST-6)
Location: MANKATO
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Peas to nickel size hail occurred.

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 15:28:00 to 31-AUG-14 15:28:00 (CST-6)
Location: FORMOSO
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:01:00 to 31-AUG-14 16:01:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Law Enforcement

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:58:00 to 31-AUG-14 16:58:00 (CST-6)
Location: VICTOR
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 17:07:00 to 31-AUG-14 17:07:00 (CST-6)
Location: ASHERVILLE
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Pea to nickel size hail occurred with heavy rain.

Heavy Rain in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 15:00:00 to 31-AUG-14 23:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Storm-total rainfall of 3.00, the majority of which fell between 4-6 pm CDT.

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 31-AUG-14 16:30:00 to 31-AUG-14 16:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: SCOTTSVILLE
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS