During the afternoon-evening of the 19th, this six-county North Central Kansas area remained safely to the west of a zone of severe thunderstorms that raked across parts of south central and eastern Kansas. However, the overnight hours turned more active as a cluster of slightly-elevated, strong to severe storms swept across primarily Osborne, Mitchell, Smith and Jewell counties between 12-2 a.m. CDT on Thursday the 20th, prompting a few reported instances of large hail up to tennis ball size and unofficially-measured winds up to 67 MPH. Storms first erupted over the Rooks-Osborne County line and up into Smith County between 12:00-12:30 a.m. CDT. The southern-most cell quickly became severe, prompting accounts of ping pong ball to tennis ball size hail in far southern Osborne County and also a report of golf ball size stones near Hunter in Mitchell County. By 1 a.m. CDT, another storm over Jewell County reached severe levels, dropping quarter size hail in Mankato. As for winds, several area mesonet clocked primarily sub-severe gusts in the 45-55 MPH range. However, one unofficial personal weather station on the north side of Beloit registered gusts as high as 67 MPH (there were no known reports of wind damage). By 2 a.m. CDT, the back edge of what was now a small-scale quasi-linear convective system (QLCS) had departed North Central Kansas to the east-northeast, ending any local severe storm threat for the night.
Turning to the meteorological situation, in short, this round of strong to severe storms was instigated by stout forcing/lift impinging upon a slightly-elevated frontal zone rooted around 850 millibars...positioned just to the cool side of a sharp surface front slicing southeastward across the region. Going into more detail, and starting with the bigger picture of the mid-upper levels, broad and seasonably-strong southwesterly flow overspread the Central Plains on the 19th, downstream from a large-scale trough/closed low centered over the MT/ND border region. At the surface, an initially slow-moving front stalled out slightly east of North Central Kansas during the afternoon-evening, sparing the local area from the swath of severe storms that impacted south central/eastern KS. However, as midnight loomed, a shortwave trough approached the area from the Central High Plains. At the surface, this upper disturbance caused low pressure to strengthen/consolidate over southwest KS by late evening (central pressure around 998 millibars). To the north-northwest of this low, a reinforcing cold front dove southeastward across North Central Kansas during the evening, while just to the east of the area, the initial boundary that fired the afternoon convection began retreating northwestward a bit, effectively tightening up/sharpening a low level frontal zone aligned south-southwest to north-northeast through the heart of Kansas. As the mid level wave intercepted the west edge of the instability axis rooted within the sharp elevated frontal zone based around 850 millibars, the North Central Kansas storms rapidly flared up during the midnight (CDT) hour. Despite the local area residing just behind the surface front, the mesoscale environment was primed for slightly-elevated severe convection, as although most-unstable CAPE values were somewhat modest at only 500-1000 J/kg, effective deep-layer wind shear was quite vigorous at 50-60 knots.

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 19-APR-23 23:30:00 to 19-APR-23 23:35:00 (CST-6)
Location: COVERT
Magnitude: 2.50 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Ping pong ball to tennis ball size hail was reported.

Hail in OSBORNE, KANSAS
From 19-APR-23 23:40:00 to 19-APR-23 23:40:00 (CST-6)
Location: COVERT
Magnitude: 1.50 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Trained Spotter

Hail in JEWELL, KANSAS
From 20-APR-23 00:02:00 to 20-APR-23 00:02:00 (CST-6)
Location: MANKATO
Magnitude: 1.00 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Public

Thunderstorm Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 20-APR-23 00:15:00 to 20-APR-23 00:15:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT
Magnitude: 55.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A wind gust of 63 MPH was measured by an unofficial mesonet station located on the north side of Beloit.

Thunderstorm Wind in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 20-APR-23 00:22:00 to 20-APR-23 00:22:00 (CST-6)
Location: BELOIT
Magnitude: 58.00 MG
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: Mesonet

A wind gust of 67 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located one mile north of Beloit.

Hail in MITCHELL, KANSAS
From 20-APR-23 00:00:00 to 20-APR-23 00:00:00 (CST-6)
Location: HUNTER
Magnitude: 1.75 
Property damage: 0.00K
Crop damage: 0.00K
Reported by: CoCoRaHS

Delayed report via CoCoRaHS, time estimated from radar.