Jan 24, 2025

National Weather Service's 'Storm Fury on the Plains' returns to Great Bend Feb. 12

Posted Jan 24, 2025 12:10 PM
First Southern Baptist Church in Great Bend was heavily damaged by the July 16, 2023 storm.
First Southern Baptist Church in Great Bend was heavily damaged by the July 16, 2023 storm.

By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post

Straight-line winds and softball-sized hail ripped through Great Bend on July 16, 2023. Cleanup efforts were still ongoing a year later. The destructive potential of straight-line winds will be added to the National Weather Service's annual Storm Fury on the Plains presentation this year. Vanessa Pearce, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Wichita, said the presentation returns to the Crest Theater in downtown Great Bend on Wednesday, Feb. 12 at 6:30 p.m.

"There is going to be a section this year on straight-line winds versus tornadoes," she said. "That's something we're going to try to point out because we did have a good amount of straight-line wind damage. It can be quite damaging, even more so than tornadoes sometimes."

The free presentation typically includes information about identifying types of storms and how to report information to the Weather Service and authorities. After some below-average years, 89 tornadoes were reported across the state last year, compared to just 39 in 2023.

"We had more tornadoes than we did the previous year, for sure, especially in the counties we cover," Pearce said. "We had a lot more active year than we've had the past couple of years, closer to our seasonal normal."

An EF-3 tornado, with estimated winds of 140 miles per hour, hit Westmoreland northeast of Manhattan on April 30 last year. The 58-year-old woman killed in that storm was the only storm-related fatality in Kansas last year.