7/4/2009

Despite high winds, intense lightning, hard-falling rain and a tornado funnel sighting, a major thunderstorm cell that moved through north-central Kansas on Friday caused little damage in the area.

Severe thunderstorms began about 8 p.m. in Ottawa County and moved through upper Saline and Dickinson counties during the next hour.

A funnel cloud, reported by a storm chaser at about 8:45 p.m., touched down briefly near New Cambria, but no damage was reported, according to a Dickinson County Sheriff’s office dispatcher.

The storm caused a vehicle rollover wreck in Ottawa County, which sent a woman to Salina Regional Health Center, a Kansas Highway Patrol report said. No other storm-related wrecks in the area were reported.

At about 11 p.m., another storm cell created wind gusts of nearly 60 miles an hour in areas of Saline County, according to a report by the National Weather Service in Wichita. Damage to the area was minimal, a dispatcher with the Saline County Sheriff’s Office said.

Despite the intensity of the rain, only 1.08 inches was recorded during the last 24 hours by the rain gauge at the Salina Municipal Airport.