Lightning, Smith
- When
- July 22, 9:00 AM CST
- Where
- Smith County, 1 mi SW of Smith Center
- Property damage
- $10,000
- Reported by
- NEWSPAPER
- Coordinates
- 39.785, -98.785 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)
A lightning bolt hit a barn and started it and hay on fire. A driver passing by, seeing the flames, called the fire department.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS GID wrote it up.
A lightning bolt hit a barn and started it and hay on fire. A driver passing by, seeing the flames, called the fire department.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 1998Every state in 1998This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, July 1998
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5650187.