May 26, 2021
This event broke the tornado drought for the NWS Wichita office of 611 days. Storms developed during the late afternoon hours on Wednesday, May 26th over Central Kansas near a warm front. A very moist and unstable air mass was in place which allowed storms to rapidly become severe, producing hail up to baseball size along with a few brief tornadoes. The strongest tornado caused some damage across far northern Rice county. These same storms also produced very heavy rainfall which led to some floo
Source: NOAA National Weather Service Storm Events Database (event 958396). Narrative written by NWS staff at the time of the event.
This event is one of many recorded floods in Rice County. See the full FEMA flood zone map, NFIP claim totals, and disaster history for the area.