Reports of tornadoes and softball-sized hail in Kansas. Here are the details

Kansas had softball-sized hail and at least one tornado Wednesday night.

There were four reports of tornadoes, with one reportedly damaging five barns. National Weather Service officials based in Topeka were out Thursday surveying to confirm the reports and magnitude of those storms.

“Looking at what the radar looked like last night, they will come out with a tornado,” said Vanessa Pearce, a NWS meteorologist based in Wichita. “It’s just a matter of how many will there be, how many separate ones and paths on them and stuff like that.”

An Eagle journalist captured a picture of a tornado in a rural area between Alta Vista and Council Grove. There were also reports of damage to car windshields and shingles, Pearce said. She added no injuries had been reported by noon Thursday.

Tornadoes were reported at 7:50 p.m. three miles northeast of Alta Vista; another report, believed to happen around 8:02 p.m., was just northeast of the first in Volland where a rancher reported damage to five barns; then just northeast of that law enforcement reported a tornado on the ground four miles southwest of Alma at 8:15 p.m. The last report came more than 20 miles away, and on the north side of I-70, one mile northwest of Rossville, at 8:33 p.m.

Starting around 7 p.m., clusters of hail were reported across Kansas along I-70 in Trego County, again in Wabaunsee and Shawnee counties and then again in the Kansas City metro area. Hail was also reported on the other side of the metro in Missouri.

The largest hail, which Pearce called softball-sized, was four inches reported at 8:08 p.m. Wednesday a couple miles west-southwest of Alma in Wabaunsee.

She said Johnson County reported a “baseball-size hail” at 3.5 inches.

The highest winds reported were around 60 mph in several areas.