McDONALD AREA HARD-HIT BY HAIL.

STORMS STAGE KANSAS SIT-IN.

Gloomy, rainy weather returned to Kansas just in time to spoil any weekend outdoor recreational plans, and accompanying hail left a costly calling card in the wheat and corn fields of Rawlins county.
The storm front moved in Friday night, and the weatherman promised at least a 48-hour sit-in.
The National Weather Service kept its wires busy with flash flood watches, severe thunderstorm warnings and rainfall reports.
Hail storms over McDonald Friday mowed down fields of wheat and irrigated corn as effectively as modern combines.
Rain and wind in areas of the state where wheat is in its final ripening stage brought fears of lodging (falling down, never to rise again) and expectations of a harvest burdened with having to plant milo and grain sorghum.
"There were streaks of hail all around, said RONALD BELL, rural McDonald, in western Rawlins county. "Dad's place was hit twice. He said it looks like summer fallow in some of his fields."
BELL told The Journal that McDonald area farmers had suffered through several hail storms this spring.
"Pretty near every cloud seems to have hail in it," he said. "Every cloud has .02 of an inch of rain and 2 inches of hail in it."
TIM KNAPP, assistant manager of MGM Grain Co., McDonald, said farmers in a 9-mile radius of McDonald had reported extensive hail damage.
"Some of the corn fields have nothing but stubs left," he said.
KNAPP said 2 hail storms moved in tandem over McDonald, shredding the corn and wheat. "This whole area is just about wiped out," he said.
Saline county Extension director E. J. SISK said Saturday afternoon that it would "take a real heavy rain or wind with the soaked ground to lodge the wheat."
"We're going to have some downed wheat," he said. "We do every year. As the ground gets soaked and the wheat gets its heavy top growth, it won't take much wind to push this stuff on over."
Sisk and Dickinson county Extension agent LARRY RIAT agreed in separate interviews that getting into the wet fields could be a problem if heavy rains soaked the area.
"I'm more concerned about the row crops," RAIT said. "June 10 is an ideal time to plant grain sorghum and soybeans."
"Normally, farmers here plant, then cut wheat," RIAT added. "This rain could throw the schedule out of whack. The rain could cause erosion on newly planted fields. There are a lot of factors involved."
RIAT said Dickinson county wheat needed 10 days of light winds and sunshine to dry to a 14 percent moisture content.
RIAT said Saturday it was "too soon to tell" if the weekend rains will lodge the wheat. "It could have an effect," he said. "Anytime wheat is in the final stage of maturity, that's a possibility."
LEON HAHN, rural Gypsum farmer who lost 150 acres to hail several weeks ago, said lodging would depend "on how hard the rain is and how much wind comes with it."
"The rain won't help this hail weakened wheat," he said, "but as far as a good average rain goes, I don't think it will hurt the wheat any." HAHN said that applies only if the sun shines soon.
NWS said the outlook for the rest of the weekend calls for possible flash flooding, locally heavy rains, possible severe thunderstorms and unseasonably cool temperatures.
The volatile weather is caused by a giant stationary frontal system extending across the Midwest from Iowa to New Mexico, where a developing low pressure system was reported Saturday. At the same time, much colder air in the upper atmosphere was moving toward the Rockies, NWS said.
NWS said most of the severe weather was expected to hit the southern half of the state Saturday night.
Most observers in the Saline area expected little trouble with floods -- if the rains continued to fall in a light and steady pattern as they did Friday night and Saturday.
WILLIAM DINKLER, Brookville, who measures rain for NWS and keeps a trained eye on creeks which feed the troublesome Mulberry, said he expects few problems if the rains don't come in a deluge.
Brookville had .72 of an inch by 1 pm Saturday, including .60 Friday night.
"When it comes slow like that, it doesn't make any difficulties," DINKLER said. "Our trouble mainly comes if the rain falls fast."
DINKLER said little wheat was lodging near Brookville.
"It'll go down if we get rain and wind," he added. "The rain's not doing any good. It's a hindrance, but not doing any great damage."
Saturday night, State Highway commission crews were enroute to Hope, where highway K4 was reported under water at the Chapman Road intersection. Highway Patrol headquarters at Salina said there had been no other reports of flooding in the area.
A tornado watch was in effect until 2 am Sunday across eastern Kansas, east of a line extending from Frankfort through Junction City to Wichita. Flash flood warnings also were issued for areas of South-Central and Southeastern Kansas, from near Hutchinson to Topeka, an NWS spokesman said.
"Heavy rains of 3 and 4 inches are occurring all over the central part of the state," he added.
Salina logged an additional 1.16 inches of rainfall from 7 am to 7 pm Saturday, according to the FAA flight service station, bringing the city's 36-hour total to 1.22 inches.

The Salina Journal Kansas 1974-06-08
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Researched and Transcribed by Stu Beitler. Thank you, Stu!