An inch of rain and quarter-sized hail may fall in Wichita during storm, NWS predicts

Weather forecasters are predicting more than an inch of rain and hail stones the size of nickels may fall in Wichita Tuesday night and Wednesday.

Meteorologists with the National Weather Service office in Wichita predict a 60% chance for precipitation Tuesday night, a 90% chance for daytime Wednesday and a 60% chance for Wednesday night. Rain is most likely to fall between 1 a.m. Wednesday and 1 a.m. Thursday.

The Wichita forecast was current as of Tuesday evening.

Much of the NWS Wichita service area is expected to be stormy.

“There is risk for strong to severe storms after midnight across south central Kansas and the southern Flint Hills,” states an NWS hazardous weather outlook. “The main threat will be nickel- to quarter-sized hail. However, there is a conditional risk for hail up to golf ball size and damaging winds to 60 mph, for the Oklahoma border counties of south central Kansas.

“Severe storms, capable of large hail and locally damaging winds will be possible on Wednesday, mainly for the Oklahoma border counties of south central and southeast Kansas. Strong storms will be possible across the rest of south central and southeast Kansas.”

The thunderstorms are expected to produce locally heavy rainfall, and minor lowland flooding is possible in areas generally south of a line from Hutchinson to Emporia.

“The type of thunderstorms expected through Wednesday can produce a lot of lightning,” NWS forecasters said on Twitter. “It may be a good idea to have some flashlights or candles nearby in case there are a few power outages.”

This story was originally published April 21, 2020 at 6:11 PM.