It's quite rare that widespread/severe NON-thunderstorm winds take center stage over thunderstorms during June in North Central Kansas, but that's exactly what happened on this Tuesday as an anomalously strong low pressure system (by June standards) advanced through the Central Plains. For sure, the number one weather story across these six counties was several hours of intense north winds, commonly sustained 30-40 MPH and gusting 40-60+ MPH in the wake of a powerful late-spring cold front. Based on a variety of unofficial sensors, some of the highest afternoon-evening gusts featured: 66 MPH near Logan, 62 MPH in rural eastern Rooks County, 59 MPH near Kirwin and 58 MPH at Phillipsburg airport and also near Webber. These winds undoubtedly caused several instances of mainly minor damage within the area, but ground-truth reports were quite limited. For the majority of this area, the overall-worst winds concentrated during portions of the noon-midnight CDT time frame. Turning to thunderstorms, while non-severe activity was common across much of North Central Kansas during the late afternoon and especially evening, this area narrowly dodged a severe storm threat due mainly to a strong surface cold front and dryline passing through prior to robust development taking place along these boundaries. However, a few strong to severe storms materialized just barely off to the east-northeast within counties such as Republic KS and Thayer NE.
Both in the mid-upper levels and at the surface, the intensity of this weather system was quite abnormal for June...more reminiscent of those that sometimes occur earlier in the spring. Aloft, a deep closed low slowly tracked from eastern CO around daybreak on the 9th to northeast KS by sunset, eventually departing the Central Plains into northern MO by sunrise on the 10th. The associated surface low center lumbered east through northern KS over the course of the day (nearly directly across the local area), deepening to around 993 millibars in the process. While the position and track of the surface low/cold front spared most of the area from severe storms, especially Jewell/Mitchell counties dodged a potentially significant threat as the environment briefly became conditionally supportive of supercells and possible tornadoes during the afternoon. In fact, mesoscale parameters in this area briefly featured a potent combination of mixed-layer CAPE around 2000 J/kg, deep layer wind shear of 50-70 knots and 0-1 kilometer shear of 20-30 knots. As for the unusual nature of such intense northerly winds so late in the spring, it's worth noting that howling speeds of 50-70 knots a few thousand feet above the ground (at 850 millibars) registered 3-4 standard deviations above normal for the date...basically off the charts.