After strong winds reported to be up to 111 mph caused damage in Derby early Sunday morning, the National Weather Service surveyed whether the storm spawned a tornado.
The Wichita office of the weather service said officials would be in Derby on Sunday afternoon to conduct a survey to determine whether damage was caused by extreme straight-line winds or a tornado. A 111 mph wind gust with sustained winds of 76 mph was recorded at around 5:09 a.m. in the southeastern Sedgwick County town at a Weather Underground station, according to NWS local storm reports.
But the National Weather Service later reported that a damage survey team found 75 to 90 mph straight-line wind damage primarily to softwood trees across southern and southeast Sedgwick County. The storm hit between about 4:54 a.m and 5:06 a.m., and left a path of damage about half a mile to a mile wide that stretched along a nearly 11-mile path from northwest of Peck to Derby.
“We think the 111 mph gust was too high,” the Wichita branch of the weather service said in a tweet. “As winds this strong would have caused more extensive structural damage.”
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