By CLARA KILBOURN

Hutchinson News

In a final April weekend of showers, south-central Kansas measured varying amounts of moisture, ranging from light drizzle to a torrential 5.9 inches in northern Comanche County.

And in McPherson County, a 5 p.m. two-vehicle accident was blamed on low visibility because of heavy rainfall.

The Kansas Highway Patrol reported Jennifer L. Roeder, 37, Wichita, was injured when her northbound 1996 Honda was rear-ended by a 1999 Dodge Neon driven by Randi Lynn Drake, 22, Haven. Both vehicles had stopped on the Interstate 135 shoulder 9 miles north of U.S. Highway 56 because of heavy rain. Roeder was transported to McPherson Community Hospital. Both drivers were wearing seat belts, according to the report.

At the Chuck and Tanya Yost farm 3 miles north of Wilmore in northern Comanche County, along the Oklahoma border, 4 inches of rain fell during an early afternoon downpour. Their neighbor 1 mile north reported 5.9 inches, Tanya Yost said.

"We had basically a river going through our pasture," Yost said. "In 30 years, my husband had never seen anything like it."

At 2:15 p.m., during the height of the rainfall, the sky darkened so much their mercury vapor lights came on, she said.

"It was scary, unsettling to see so much water coming down," Yost said.

After the storm let up, they drove into Wilmore where they watched Mule Creek still trickling through town. Within two hours, there was water everywhere.

Wilmore Fire Chief Roger Unruh, who was out working as a storm spotter, told them he had met the wall of water as he drove north out of town, Yost said.

The National Weather Service in Dodge City credited an intense upper-level low-pressure system that hovered over the central part of the state Sunday for the light-to-heavy thunderstorms, high winds, lightning and tornado warnings.

The trough that produced the unstable weather conditions stretched from central Nebraska in the north to eastern New Mexico, said Larry Ruthi, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Dodge City.

Warm temperatures in lower levels enhanced the inclement weather pattern, he said.

While there were no confirmed tornadoes, there might have been one or two that touched down briefly, Ruthi said.

Reports of hail ranged from penny size to 1 inch, with some as large as the golf-ball size that shattered windows in the Protection area of Comanche County. Wind gusts of up to 80 mph were reported at 2 p.m. in southwestern Pratt County, and 1-inch hail fell at 5:30 p.m. in Pawnee County.

Across the several south-central and southwest counties where the storm hovered, small creeks and ditches filled and were spilling over, Ruthi said. Warnings were posted for potential flooding on township roads.

The daylong storm system that finally moved out of the area and on to the northeast during the early evening hours came as no surprise, Ruthi said.