This funnel was spotted Wednesday evening three miles south of Oskaloosa in the parking lot of the Jefferson County Sheriff's office. The image was taken by Matt Rumsey.

Storms thumped the Lawrence area and much of northeastern Kansas Wednesday night, bringing tornadoes, thunderstorms, lightning, hail and heavy rain.

Although Lawrence and Douglas County were in a tornado watch from late afternoon until 9 p.m., most of the threatening weather went to the north and the south.

A tornado damaged a shed about 5:30 p.m. four miles northwest of Oskaloosa, said Jefferson County Emergency Management Director Don Haynes. No one was injured.

At least six wall clouds, where tornadoes often form, were spotted early in the evening, he said.

“Thank goodness they didn’t all turn into tornadoes,” Haynes said.

Tornado warning sirens were sounded twice in Tonganoxie early in the evening, but the closest any tornado was seen was at least seven miles north of town, a police dispatcher said.

Eric Duncan, Nick Ladish, and Jim Lindner, from left, look for signs of rotation in a passing thunderstorm Wednesday near Whitewater, which is in the central part of the state. Although Lawrence and Douglas County were in a tornado watch from late afternoon until 9 p.m., most of the threatening weather went around to the north and the south.

Most of the heavier storms in Leavenworth County were in the Lansing and Leavenworth areas.

About 7:15 p.m. the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for northern Franklin and extreme southern Douglas counties as a severe storm moved into the area from Osage County. No sirens were sounded in Douglas County, and the warning was canceled about 15 minutes later.

No tornadoes were seen in Franklin County, but there were reports of 70 mph winds and heavy rain, said Emergency Management Director Alan Radcliffe. Some trees and tree limbs were down, and there were scattered power outages in rural areas, he said, in addition to minor flooding on roadways.

In Lawrence, as of 10 p.m., only .12 inches of rain had fallen at Lawrence Municipal Airport, 6News meteorologist Matt Sayers said.

There were scattered power outages, and up to 140 Westar Energy customers were without power at various times, a utility official said.

More thunderstorms were expected to roll through the area overnight, Sayers said. Douglas County was under a thunderstorm watch until 4 a.m. today and a flood watch until 7 a.m.