Tornado causes damage in rural Cowley, Chautauqua counties (VIDEO)
.jpg "At least one structure was hit by a white stovepipe tornado that struck rural Cowley County on Monday night, according to the National Weather Service. The tornado touched down at about 8 p.m. south of Dexter, according to information provided by Valley Center storm chaser Brandon Ivey, who captured footage of the twister.")
The National Weather Service has sent a damage assessment team to southeast Kansas after a stovepipe tornado churned through the area Monday night.
Several homes in the unincorporated town of Hewins in southern Chautauqua County were damaged by the tornado, said Robb Lawson, a meteorologist with the weather service. No injuries were reported, however.
“It was a pretty long-lived tornado,” Lawson said.
Preliminary estimates indicate the tornado touched down at about 8 p.m., was on the ground for at least 20 minutes and was accompanied by hail the size of tennis balls.
The Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., logged five reports of tornadoes in Cowley and Chautauqua counties Monday night, though weather officials say the reports are likely to be different vantage points or stages of the same tornado.
The tornado appears to have the longest track of any in the 26-county warning area covered by the Wichita office so far this year, Lawson said.
“It just goes to show you — as long as you have the ingredients” for a tornado, “it doesn’t matter what time of year it is,” he said.
Indeed, Kansas has logged tornadoes in all 12 months of the year.
Reach Stan Finger at 316-268-6437 or sfinger@wichitaeagle.com. Follow him on Twitter: @StanFinger.
This story was originally published September 2, 2014 at 8:50 AM with the headline "Tornado causes damage in rural Cowley, Chautauqua counties (VIDEO)."