On Tuesday the 26th, a smattering of severe storms paid a visit to this six-county North Central Kansas area for the second time in three days, resulting in a few reports of large hail up to golf ball size and also the first documented (albeit brief) tornado of 2016 within the local area. Like the event two days prior, the majority of severe weather again targeted Jewell County. There were actually two separate rounds of severe storms on this day, one during the pre-dawn hours and another during the late afternoon/early evening. The early morning storms were classic, elevated hail producers that flared up between 2-5 a.m. CDT, highlighted by a supercell that dumped quarter to golf ball size hail on the town of Jewell for 20 minutes around 3 a.m. CDT. After these early morning storms exited to the north and east by 5 a.m. CDT, most of the day featured a solid lull before the mid/late afternoon redevelopment. During the afternoon/evening event, Jewell County was again the primary action zone as a few severe storms tracked through between 4:30-7:30 p.m. CDT, yielding ping pong ball size hail near Lovewell Reservoir and again dropping quarter size hail in Jewell. As it turned out, the only local severe weather report outside of Jewell County on this day was the aforementioned brief, EF0-rated tornado which touched down shortly before 8 p.m. CDT in a rural area near the Phillips/Smith County line, roughly 10 miles north of Kensington. This tornado caused no known damage as it developed from what appeared to be a tiny supercell storm along the southern edge of a larger storm complex centered to the north in Nebraska. Later in the night, more widespread showers and storms blossomed across North Central Kansas, but these were non-severe and produced only rain and possibly some small hail. Rainfall-wise, the majority of the six-county area averaged well-under 1 inch for the event. However, a fairly narrow corridor of eastern Jewell County registered 24-hour totals of 1.50-3.00, including 2.99 in Jewell and 2.67 near Webber. Most of this rain fell between 6-8 p.m. CDT under a persistent narrow line of strong to severe storms. However, there were no reports of impactful flooding.
This was a well-anticipated, synoptically evident severe weather event, as a large, deep trough ejected out of the Central/Southern Rockies into the Central/Southern Plains in a neutral-to-slightly negatively-tilted orientation. During the initial round of early morning hailers, the local area was positioned just north of a well-defined surface stationary front stretched from west-east near the Interstate 70 corridor, with convection driven by classic warm air/moisture advection at the nose of a 40 knot low level jet and in the presence of healthy elevated most-unstable CAPE around 2000 J/kg. By the time of afternoon redevelopment, a 996 millibar surface low was positioned just south of North Central Kansas, with the associated quasi-stationary front barely lifting north into the local area. Late afternoon surface observations from Beloit and Smith Center revealed temperatures in the mid-upper 70s F, dewpoints in the low 60s and modest east-southeast breezes. Mesoscale parameters were more than sufficient for severe storms, featuring at least 2000 J/kg mixed-layer CAPE and deep-layer wind shear of 50-60 knots. However, the low-mid level wind profile proved rather inhospitable to longer-lived, discrete supercell storms, instead favoring clusters/line segments. For days leading up to the 26th, there was considerable speculation in some weather circles about this being a major severe weather/tornado outbreak through much of the Central Plains. This perception was fueled when the Storm Prediction Center placed much of central/eastern Kansas under a Moderate Risk on the Day 2 outlooks issued on the 25th and maintained this level 4 category through most of the Day 1 period. As it turned out, although there were numerous reports of primarily large hail in parts of central and eastern Kansas, fortunately a number of factors (including predominant storm mode) held a significant tornado outbreak at bay.

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 15:41:00 to 26-APR-16 15:41:00 (CST-6)
Location: MANKATO
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Storm Chaser

Nickel size hail was reported at the junction of Highway 36 and Highway 14.

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 17:22:00 to 26-APR-16 17:22:00 (CST-6)
Location: JEWELL
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 18:24:00 to 26-APR-16 18:24:00 (CST-6)
Location: FORMOSO
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 16:57:00 to 26-APR-16 16:57:00 (CST-6)
Location: JEWELL
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Tornado in SMITH, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 18:47:00 to 26-APR-16 18:49:00 (CST-6)
Location: KENSINGTON
Tornado F-scale: EF0
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Storm Survey

A brief tornado occurred approximately 10 miles north of Kensington. This tornado was viewed by the public and confirmation of the event was provided via a photo. The tornado caused no damage, and remained in the same general area for a few minutes before dissipating.

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 01:45:00 to 26-APR-16 02:05:00 (CST-6)
Location: JEWELL
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Quarter to golf ball size hail occurred.

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 17:15:00 to 26-APR-16 17:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: LOVEWELL RES
Magnitude: 1.50 
Property damage: 25.00K
Crop damage: 250.00K
Reported by: COOP Observer

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 26-APR-16 01:55:00 to 26-APR-16 01:55:00 (CST-6)
Location: WEBBER
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS