Although this six-county North Central Kansas area missed out on the more significant coverage of severe thunderstorms that impacted many places not far off to the north, east and southeast on this Friday afternoon-early evening, it still dealt with spotty strong to severe storms, and more notably a few hours of damaging (mainly non-thunderstorm driven) winds behind a surging dryline/cold front. These damaging winds, which affected various portions of the area and were mainly out of the west/northwest, seemed to be most concentrated within Rooks, Osborne and Mitchell counties between 5-8 p.m. CDT. During this time, several mesonet stations registered severe-criteria gusts ranging from 58-84 MPH (including 84 MPH seven miles east of Tipton, 79 MPH four miles west-southwest of Beloit, 67 MPH near Osborne and 59 MPH in Plainville). Though ground-truth damage reports were limited, a hay shed was blown down in southeastern Osborne County and at least one large tree was toppled in Beloit. The setup behind these damaging winds was likely a bit complex and multi-faceted, but they were likely driven primarily by a pronounced spike in the local surface pressure gradient between a strong/departing low pressure center and also sharp pressure rises behind the aforementioned surging frontal boundaries. However, this might not have been a purely non-convective wind event either, as many of the enhanced gusts tended to occur in the vicinity of otherwise benign looking rain showers/weak storms, making it plausible that light precipitation falling through a steep low-level lapse rate environment might have also enhanced the ambient gradient-driven winds. Turning to actual strong-to-severe thunderstorms within the local domain, fortunately coverage/impacts were fairly limited and mainly confined to parts of Phillips, Rooks and Smith counties. There was only one report of severe-criteria hail...ping pong ball size near Long Island....as the far southern fringes of a supercell in Nebraska brushed across far northern Phillips County mainly between 5-6 p.m. CDT. During the following hour, a line of storms briefly intensified mainly over Smith/Rooks counties, prompting a 61 MPH gust at the Smith Center airport and dropping hail up to nickel size near Webster State Park.
Finishing with a closer look at the meteorological situation, overall this was a prime springtime severe weather setup. In the mid-upper levels, a strong, slightly negatively-tilted shortwave trough ejected out of the Rockies and across the heart of Nebraska/northern Kansas over the course of the afternoon-evening. At the surface, the main low pressure center drifted slowly eastward across northern Kansas (peaking at around 992 millibars), with a fairly well-defined warm front taking shape along the KS/NE border ahead of it and a sharp cold front/dryline combination surging in behind it. Within most of the local area, afternoon temperatures soared into the upper 80s-low 90s (F) just south of the warm front, but low-level moisture was seasonably-modest with dewpoints only reaching the 50s ahead of the dryline/cold front. Nonetheless, steep mid-level lapse rates prompted healthy instability with mixed-layer CAPE peaking as high as 1500-2500 J/kg, and deep-layer shear was modestly-strong (as high as 40-50 knots).

Hail in PHILLIPS, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 16:15:00 to 29-APR-22 16:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: LONG IS
Magnitude: 1.50 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Social Media

Thunderstorm Wind in SMITH, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 16:45:00 to 29-APR-22 16:45:00 (CST-6)
Location: KENSINGTON
Magnitude: 52.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: NWS Employee

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 60 MPH along an outflow surge.

High Wind in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 16:55:00 to 29-APR-22 16:55:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 50.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a KSU mesonet station located one mile north-northwest of Osborne.

High Wind in PHILLIPS, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:00:00 to 29-APR-22 17:00:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 57.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 66 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located one mile west of Logan.

Thunderstorm Wind in SMITH, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:15:00 to 29-APR-22 17:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: SMITH CENTER ARPT
Magnitude: 53.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: AWOS

A wind gust of 61 MPH was measured by the Smith Center Airport AWOS.

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:30:00 to 29-APR-22 17:30:00 (CST-6)
Location: WEBSTER RES
Magnitude: 0.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:46:00 to 29-APR-22 17:46:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 60.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 69 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located three miles north of Tipton.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:59:00 to 29-APR-22 17:59:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 62.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 71 MPH was measured by a KSU mesonet station located six miles west-southwest of Beloit.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:59:00 to 29-APR-22 17:59:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 73.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 84 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located seven miles east of Tipton.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:03:00 to 29-APR-22 18:03:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 69.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 79 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles west-southwest of Beloit. Tree damage was also reported in Beloit, including a tree that was approximately three feet in diameter.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:08:00 to 29-APR-22 18:08:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 61.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 70 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located nine miles east-northeast of Victor.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:20:00 to 29-APR-22 18:20:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 54.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 62 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located nine miles northeast of Victor.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:21:00 to 29-APR-22 18:21:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 57.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 66 MPH was measured by a KSU mesonet station located six miles west-southwest of Beloit.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:26:00 to 29-APR-22 18:26:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 50.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 58 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located two miles north of Glen Elder.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:30:00 to 29-APR-22 18:30:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 57.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 66 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located four miles west-southwest of Beloit.

High Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:54:00 to 29-APR-22 18:54:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 51.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located in Cawker City.

High Wind in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 18:48:00 to 29-APR-22 18:48:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 58.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A non-thunderstorm wind gust of 67 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located one mile north-northeast of Osborne.

High Wind in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 16:00:00 to 29-APR-22 16:00:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 61.00 EG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Wind gusts were estimated to be near 65-70 MPH, and a spotter reported a hay shed was blown down 11 miles east-southeast of Covert.

High Wind in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 16:01:00 to 29-APR-22 16:01:00 (CST-6)
Magnitude: 51.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by mesonet station located in Plainville.

Hail in ROOKS, KANSAS
From 29-APR-22 17:35:00 to 29-APR-22 17:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: WEBSTER
Magnitude: 0.88 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS