Wichita under tornado watch with threats of tennis ball-sized hail, strong wind gusts

Update, 5:30 p.m.:

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for Wichita and other parts of Kansas and Missouri until 11 p.m. Tuesday.

The watch covers Sedgwick County along with 33 other Kansas counties. The NWS said weather threats include hail up to the size of a tennis ball, 70 mph wind gusts and the chance of few tornadoes.

A tornado watch is when “weather conditions favor thunderstorms capable of producing tornadoes,” according to the NWS.

Original story, 2:45 p.m.:

Baseball-sized hail and up to 70 mph wind gusts are forecast to hit the Wichita area Tuesday afternoon.

The window for that mix is forecast from 4 to 8 p.m., National Weather Service Wichita meteorologist James Cuellar said.

Severe storms with threats of hail, strong wind gusts and heavy rainfall are also expected to affect northeast Kansas Tuesday. Wichita will not see nearly as much of that mix.

“With Wichita kind of being on the far western edge of the expecting storms, rainfall isn’t necessarily going to be a concern for the Wichita area specifically,” Cuellar said. “Hail is the main concern [for Wichita].”

A detailed NWS forecast for Wichita shows Tuesday afternoon at a 30% chance of showers after 5 p.m. Going into Tuesday night the chance for showers and thunderstorms increases to 40%.

The storms are expected to move out east by 9 p.m., although there is still the chance for less severe storms to develop later in the night.

“Some small hail could still be a threat, but we’re not expecting these big, organized storms overnight,” Cuellar said.

Looking ahead into Wednesday there is a 60% percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before 1 p.m. and lasting until 10 p.m., a forecast shows.

“We could see some of those festering storms linger tomorrow [Wednesday] morning, but we’re thinking the better chances are off to the east [of Wichita],” Cuellar said.

Thursday sits at a 70% chance of rain with Friday, Saturday and Sunday sitting at a low 20-30%chance of rain.

“Monday right now kind of looks like the potential for our next bigger storm system,” Cuellar said. “But that being about six days away, we still have a lot details that we need to refine for that.”