Following a three-week minimum in severe thunderstorm activity within this six-county North Central Kansas area, the month of June kicked off with a relatively widespread severe episode centered during the late afternoon hours on this Sunday. In general, this event consisted of several small clusters of multicell storms gradually morphing into a more organized, east-southeast surging squall line. Ground-truth storm reports consisted of a fairly even mix of hail and winds. Hail-wise, stones up to golf ball size were reported in Alton and up to ping pong ball size in Osborne. All known severe-criteria wind reports emanated from Osborne and Jewell counties, including estimated gusts of 70 MPH in Formoso which caused tree damage. On a positive note, this event brought a much-needed soaking rain of generally 1-3 to the majority of the local area. Localized spots slightly exceeded 3, including CoCoRaHS and NWS cooperative observer 24-hour totals featuring 3.40 two miles southwest of Alton and 3.23 at both Ionia and seven miles northwest of Lebanon.
Rather weak, non-severe elevated thunderstorms got underway across parts of the area fairly early in the day between 10 am-1 pm CDT. During the 1-4 pm CDT time frame, transient clusters of storms gradually intensified and became strong to marginally severe as they tracked northeastward over the area. The ensuing three hours between 4-7 pm CDT then featured the main event of the day as ongoing storm clusters over North Central Kansas gradually grew upscale into a linear complex that also merged with a small line segment dropping southeast out of southern Nebraska. By the time this maturing squall line reached the Jewell, Mitchell and southeastern Osborne counties area, the large hail threat declined as strong winds took center stage. By 830 pm CDT, nearly all convection had vacated the local area into central and northeastern Kansas. In the big picture aloft, this event was driven by a series of low amplitude shortwave disturbances ejecting eastward out of the Central Rockies into the Central Plains, along the southeastern periphery of a parent trough shifting eastward from the Northern Rockies. At the surface, convection intensified ahead of and along the combination of a convectively-driven outflow boundary and synoptic-scale cold front gradually working southeastward across the region. Although early-day convection and resultant cloud cover kept much of North Central Kansas from realizing its full potential for low level destabilization, parts of the area were able to at least briefly realize high temperatures in the 80s F, along with dewpoints in the low-mid 60s. As storms intensified during the afternoon hours, the mesoscale environment featured steep mid level lapse rates, mixed layer CAPE up to around 2000 J/kg and increasing 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear of at least 30-40 knots.

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 14:52:00 to 01-JUN-14 14:52:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALTON
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Broadcast Media

Hail in PHILLIPS, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 14:59:00 to 01-JUN-14 14:59:00 (CST-6)
Location: LONG IS
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 15:11:00 to 01-JUN-14 15:11:00 (CST-6)
Location: WOODSTON
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: 911 Call Center

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 15:21:00 to 01-JUN-14 15:21:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALTON
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 15:43:00 to 01-JUN-14 15:43:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALTON
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Thunderstorm Wind in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 16:08:00 to 01-JUN-14 16:08:00 (CST-6)
Location: BURR OAK
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH.

Thunderstorm Wind in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 16:20:00 to 01-JUN-14 16:20:00 (CST-6)
Location: OSBORNE
Magnitude: 51.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

Heavy Rain in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 06:00:00 to 02-JUN-14 06:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: IONIA
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

A storm total rainfall amount of 3.23 inches was reported.

Heavy Rain in SMITH, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 06:00:00 to 02-JUN-14 06:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: LEBANON
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

A storm total rainfall amount of 3.23 inches was reported.

Heavy Rain in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 07:00:00 to 02-JUN-14 07:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALTON
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

A storm total rainfall amount of 3.40 inches was reported.

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 16:00:00 to 01-JUN-14 16:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: ALTON
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 16:20:00 to 01-JUN-14 16:20:00 (CST-6)
Location: OSBORNE
Magnitude: 1.50 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail ranging from quarter to ping pong ball size hail was reported.

Thunderstorm Wind in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 16:30:00 to 01-JUN-14 16:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: WEBBER
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 15.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Broadcast Media

Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH resulted in large broken tree limbs in Webber.

Thunderstorm Wind in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 16:35:00 to 01-JUN-14 16:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: FORMOSO
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

CoCoRaHS observer reported that gusts estimated at 70 MPH caused lots of tree damage. Time estimated from radar data.

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 01-JUN-14 15:28:00 to 01-JUN-14 15:28:00 (CST-6)
Location: STOCKTON
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter