The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for northeast Kansas for the afternoon and evening that includes Leavenworth, Johnson and Wyandotte counties — but not Lawrence and Douglas County.

“I don’t think the threat for tornadoes is as strong as it looked this morning,” said Ross Janssen, 6News meteorologist. “Right now, everything is north and east of us.”

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The watch area includes the cities of Olathe, Leavenworth and Kansas City and will last through 11 p.m. Wednesday.

Lawrence could still get some severe weather later Wednesday evening, Janssen said.

“There’s still a really good chance we’ll see some strong storms develop this evening and move in — but after 8 o’clock tonight,” Janssen said. “Large hail and damaging winds will all be possible with the storms that develop.”

He said the storms might produce marble- to quarter-sized hail with the stronger storms.

According to a National Weather Service statement issued at 5:45 p.m., “the air has potential for rapid thunderstorm development and persons should be alert for developing thunderstorms as well. One such area was between Topeka and Lawrence.”

So far, the mix of volatile weather conditions hasn’t spawed a lot of the severe thunderstorms expected earlier, Janssen said. There has been a report of only one tornado Wednesday in Kansas. That occurred about 3:30 p.m. in Wallace County in far western Kansas, south of Goodland, near Sharon Springs. There was no report of damage, he said.

The forecast calls for a 70 percent chance of rain Wednesday night, with scattered thunderstorms likely in the evening, with another chance for more after midnight.

Overnight, the lows will drop into the mid 50s, with southwest winds 10 to 20 mph shifting to the northwest 5 to 15 mph.