A strong cold front brought intense non-thunderstorm and thunderstorm related wind gusts to north central Kansas on the evening of October 11th. This front entered western portions of north central Kansas between 7pm and 8pm CDT.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 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 strong cold front brought intense non-thunderstorm and thunderstorm related wind gusts to north central Kansas on the evening of October 11th. This front entered western portions of north central Kansas between 7pm and 8pm CDT. The cold front already had a history of producing severe caliber, non-thunderstorm, straight line winds over western Nebraska and Kansas, and this trend continued along and just behind the cold front as it marched through north central Kansas. There were several reports of wind gusts of 60 to 65 mph across Phillips, Smith, and Osborne Counties. Damage reports from these areas were fairly typical for winds of this magnitude and mainly limited to tree and power line damage. Thunderstorms began to develop along the cold front as it moved farther east into Jewell County between 8:30pm and 9pm CDT. Thunderstorm intensity increased between 9pm CDT and 9:30pm CDT, such that the wind gusts produced by the thunderstorms enhanced the already-high ambient synoptically driven non-thunderstorm wind gusts associated with the cold front. This resulted in additional 60 to 65 mph wind gusts across portions of Jewell County. No specific damage reports were received from this area. Wind gusts decreased as thunderstorms exited Jewell County by 10pm CDT.
As mentioned above, the damaging wind events in the eastern half of north central Kansas were largely driven by convective winds that enhanced already-high ambient winds. Farther west, the severe wind was non-convective and driven by intense pressure rises behind the cold front on the order of 3-5 mb per 2 hrs. This event was somewhat unique due to the narrow overlap, spatially and temporally, of both convective and non-convective damaging winds.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Hastings, NE wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Oct 11, 5:53 PM CST, 22 minutes earlier.
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</html>The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 01:58 UTC.
4 high wind, 2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
A wind gust of 64 MPH was recorded by a mesonet station located 1 mile west of Logan.
A wind gust of 59 MPH was measured by the Phillipsburg Airport AWOS.
A wind gust of 66 MPH was measured by the Smith Center Airport AWOS.
Wind gusts estimated to be near 60 MPH resulted in tree damage and downed power lines across portions of the county, especially in the town of Osborne.
A wind gust of 60 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located 3 miles west-northwest of Jewell.
A wind gust of 63 MPH was measured by a mesonet station located in Jewell.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Kansas in 2020Every state in 2020This day in weather historyWarnings in Kansas, October 2020
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 2026-10-01. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 922610, 923020, 923021, 923026, 923029, 923031.