Large hail reported in several locations
No widespread damage
A storm system that swept across Dickinson County Friday, April 29 included large hail and an EF 1 tornado, which was on the ground for almost 30 minutes.
“Dickinson County was in the bullseye for most of the severe reports we got … strong winds to baseball-sized hail,” said meteorologist Matt Flanagan with the National Weather Service in Topeka.
The NWS reported tornado touched down around Hope at 8:06 p.m. and traveled northeast crossing into Morris County before dissipating at 8:28 p.m. 17.72 miles from where it started.
Top wind speeds were 97 miles per hour and it was estimated at 75 feet wide.
In some areas around Chapman, Enterprise and Abilene residents reported hail three inches and larger.
Flanagan said two reports of baseball-sized hail came from four miles north, northeast of Enterprise and four miles north, northeast of Chapman.
Flanagan said the National Weather Service was also following up on a possible tornado near Calrton.
When they receive tornado reports they look at the damage to determine if it was a twister or straight-line winds, which can cause just as much damage.
“Is the debris blown in a single direction, which would indicate straight-line winds, or is it in a circular pattern, is there twisting of tree branches,” he said. “If we determine it was a tornado look at damage indicators and we can get an estimate of how strong the tornado was.”
There were no reports of widespread damage in Dickinson County. However, to the south in Andover, where almost 30 years to the day an E5 tornado killed 17 people, Friday’s storm leveled dozens of buildings but there were no fatalities reported.
