At 8 P.M a series of severe thunderstorms extended from northeast of Big Springs, Texas, to  west of Brookings, South Dakota, with a break in the line of severe storms in Nebraska.  There have been several reports of tornados but the wind damage thus far in Kansas appears to be front straight winds of 80 mph in some areas, including here in Hutchinson.

 The weather service has reported golf ball sized hail here, but the hail near my house on the west side of town was only pea to marble sized.    The severe storm moved through here at about 4 P.M. with heavy rain  that for a short time reached monsoon levels.  A series of smaller storms followed.   I took a walking tour of the immediate vicinity after the rain stopped and noticed significant tree damage.  The tree damage probably would have been worse had it not been for the ice storm last winter and previous severe thunderstorms that reduced the number of limbs available to be damaged.

On a light note 2 elephants escaped from a circus in Wakeeny, Ks. during the storm, possibly because they were spooked by the tornado sirens.

The storms continue to move east and the system continues to have the potential to produce severe storms and possibly major tornadoes.  The fact that the storms are part of a line rather than separate storms is reducing the potential for tornadoes.  Single super cell storms are more likely to produce strong tornadoes because the air moving upward is concentrated in a  major updraft.   With a line of storms multiple updrafts spread out the air so it doesn't have to move as fast to move up.  The situation is similar to what happens  with a river.   The water moving through a narrow channel moves much faster than water moving over a wide area.

The center of the low pressure system  is currently in Nebraska and the pressure has risen to 991.1 mb.
 
Hopefully the storm will continue to weaken before it reaches the higher humidity air to the east.  

There is a major difference between conditions now and those in 1974.  The 1974  Outbreak occurred  in  April  when there was a supply of much cooler air available  to provide a greater  temperature  differential.   Colder air causes the warm moist air to condense faster and produces stronger downdrafts as that cold air falls.  As the cold rain and hail filled air falls it creates a  suction that pulls up warm moist air as  well as  pushing that air up  from the bottom.