Although one severe storm dropped a swath of large hail up to golf ball size across western Rooks County on this Friday afternoon and early evening, this six-county area of North Central Kansas narrowly missed out on a more concentrated corridor of severe weather, including a few tornadoes, which struck central Kansas locations just to the south. Things got underway around 4 p.m. CDT, as a severe supercell storm flared up slightly south of the local area over Ellis County. Fortunately for this portion of North Central Kansas, the tornadic right-moving component of this storm tracked just barely to the south through Ellis, Russell and Lincoln Counties over the course of the next few hours (although radar data and nearby reports suggested that its northern fringes may have dropped small hail in extreme southern Osborne County). Of greater impact to the local area, the original supercell also spawned a left split that tracked northward across mainly the western half of Rooks County between 430-600 p.m. CDT, dropping half dollar size hail in Zurich and stones up to golf ball size in the Webster State Park area. Although this storm began weakening before entering western Phillips County, it still produced copious amounts of very small hail near the county line, and one report of stones to around penny size north of Logan. After this severe storm faded, the local six-county area remained void of severe weather through the remainder of the evening, despite fairly widespread coverage of non-severe convection lingering well into the night.
At the surface, the primary feature in play during the afternoon was a well-defined, west-east oriented warm front that set up shop near the Interstate 70 corridor, extending eastward from a 996 millibar low pressure center in west central KS. Dewpoints in the mid-upper 50s F pooled along this front, as low-level shear increased within a corridor of steady east-southeast breezes. This boundary also served as a sharp dividing line between widespread low clouds to the north and sunnier skies to the south, resulting in a sharp instability gradient across the local area. In the mid-upper levels, forcing was driven by a broad shortwave trough gradually shifting northeastward from New Mexico into the Central Plains. Around the time of supercell initiation, mesoscale severe weather parameters near the Interstate 70 corridor featured 1000-2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and 0-6 kilometer deep layer wind shear of 30-40 knots.

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 24-APR-15 15:37:00 to 24-APR-15 15:37:00 (CST-6)
Location: ZURICH
Magnitude: 1.25 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Mainly penny to dime size hail was falling, with a few stones the size of a half dollar.

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 24-APR-15 15:46:00 to 24-APR-15 15:46:00 (CST-6)
Location: ZURICH
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 24-APR-15 16:10:00 to 24-APR-15 16:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: WEBSTER RES
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 50.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Emergency Manager

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 24-APR-15 16:10:00 to 24-APR-15 16:10:00 (CST-6)
Location: WEBSTER RES
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Most hail stones were the size of nickels, with some up to the size of quarters.

Hail in PHILLIPS, KANSAS
From 24-APR-15 17:15:00 to 24-APR-15 17:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOGAN
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public