No damage has been reported to Douglas County Emergency Management after a tornado early Tuesday, though two people were injured and there was some damage to the southwest of the county.
A survey team from the National Weather Service in Topeka found damage in far southeast Shawnee County and far northeast Osage County.
The tornado was an EF1, and it touched down 4 miles southwest of Overbrook. It moved northeast for approximately 10 miles, hitting Richland in far southeast Shawnee County, according to NWS. Richland is about 5 miles from one southwest point of Clinton Lake.
“The tornado had winds up to 100 mph, and two people were injured by the tornado when the RV they were in was flipped over,” according to NWS.
The Enhanced Fujita Scale ranges from EF0, least severe, to EF5, the most severe.
A tornado watch was issued for Douglas County around 4:30 a.m., followed by two tornado warnings for northwestern Douglas County. Outdoor warning sirens were activated for Lecompton and Clinton as well as a zone near Rock Chalk Park.
Outdoor sirens are intended to warn people who are outside. Weather conditions can cause sirens not to be heard indoors.
Find out more about sirens, preparedness and emergency notifications at this link. Douglas County residents can sign up for emergency alerts through the NE Kansas Regional Notification System at this link. It takes a couple of minutes.
A wind advisory is still in effect for Douglas County through 7 p.m. Tuesday, according to NWS. Southwest winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts of up to 45 mph are expected. Unsecured objects outdoors could get blown around. It could be difficult to drive, especially for high-profile vehicles, and tree limbs could be blown down.
Some isolated, non-severe storms could form across the area Tuesday afternoon into early evening, according to NWS.
Severe storms could be possible late Wednesday into Thursday morning, according to NWS. “Hail along with damaging winds appear to be the primary hazards.”
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Severe weather resources
National Weather Service local office (Topeka):
• Find the latest weather forecast info and severe weather advisories for the Lawrence area at this link.
• In the event of rapidly changing severe weather, such as tornadoes, the NWS posts frequent updates on Twitter, @NWSTopeka. You do not need a Twitter account to see tweets from NWS.
• NWS is also on Facebook, facebook.com/NWSTopeka.
• Call 785-234-2592 to hear the forecast.
Douglas County Emergency Management:
• Follow @DgCoEM on Twitter or Douglas County, KS- Emergency Management on Facebook, facebook.com/dgcoem.
• Sign up to receive emergency alerts at dgcoks.org/emalerts.
• Find lots of tips on severe weather and other emergency preparedness on DgCoEM’s website at douglascountyks.org/emergency-management.
• Report storm damage (for non-emergencies only, and after storm danger has passed) by calling the nonemergency dispatch line at 785-843-0250 or 785-832-7509.
Evergy outages:
• Check the status of power outages on the Evergy outage map, outagemap.evergy.com.
• Report a power outage at evergy.com/report-outage, or call 800-544-4857.
• For down powerlines, call 911.
City of Lawrence snow info:
• The city has snow information and a map at lawrenceks.org/snow that shows information about road conditions and snow plow locations. The city typically begins snow and ice control for residential roadways when 2 or more inches of snowfall or icing occurs.
Air quality:
• Check the current air quality index in Lawrence and elsewhere through AirNow, airnow.gov.
This post is by the Lawrence Times news team.
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