Hail from weekend storms inflicts crop damage

? Memorial Day weekend storms that spawned tornadoes also packed some whopping hail that damaged some western Kansas crops.

“Three miles north of Scott City it was hailing baseballs, but they weren’t getting any rain in town,” said Glenda Randall, who farms with her husband, Richard, in Scott County.

She said crop adjusters were sitting at her kitchen table Wednesday preparing to assess the damage.

“Depending on where you were standing and depending on the size, it covered the ground and tore everything up like it does,” she said, noting the farm has had hail three of the past five years. “We’re considering silaging some of it because it’s so far gone – as far as the wheat crop.”

Vicki Krehbiel was taking seed to her son when she got caught in the middle a hail storm that broke her driver’s-side window. The straight-line winds moved her pickup.

When it was all over, the family farm’s irrigation system was mangled from what looked like tornado rotation and some of the wheat fields received 50 percent damage from the hail.

Crop adjusters were expected to be out Thursday to see if Krehbiel will have to replant any corn.

“Hopefully we won’t,” she said, noting it’s getting a little too late in the season.

The storm did give some counties’ crops a good soak, said Larry Hoeme, a crop adjuster who lives in Scott County.

According to the Kansas Agriculture Statistics Service, Finney County received more than an inch of rain from the weekend storms. Lane County received 1.65 inches.

Other areas, however, are still in need of moisture. Some areas, including the farthest-west counties in the state, such as Hamilton, Stanton and Morton, didn’t receive any precipitation.

And in Greeley County, farmers averaged less than one-tenth of an inch of precipitation.