By KAREN MADORIN
Over the years, we’ve sat in a front row seat as Mother Nature pummeled western Kansans with hail, wind, snow, or rain.
The most frightening experience was watching weather radar from Dubois, Wyoming as the 2017 hail storm descended on WaKeeney, making it look like a war zone. By phone, we encouraged Mom as she huddled in her bathtub while baseball size hail slammed into her roof, windows, and brick siding.
On Sunday, August 3, 2025, we missed suffering a similar barrage on I-70 in Gove County only because we stopped at Cabela’s in Sidney.
After cruising with our terrier pup in a cart through our favorite outdoor store, we resumed our homeward journey and turned south at Julesburg. At Wray, we observed thunderheads building over western Kansas.
Radio 102.5 out of Goodland monitored these storms while I watched the radar. Though it was only 2 p.m. Mountain Time, some storms lit the internet in red, pink, and purple shades. The weatherman reported half-dollar size hail and 60 mph winds in southern Sherman and Wallace counties. He warned of danger in Sheridan and Gove counties where 60 mph winds would forcefully drive 2-inch hail.
As I watched the radar, the hot pink and purple oval between Hoxie and Grinnell didn’t move. Alarming hues lingered in the same spot for an hour, confirmed by the weatherman. When the storm did inch south, it dawdled. By then, we’d reached Burlington. Storms to the south and east rapped a crazy what to do, what to do rhythm in our brains. Surely that storm at Grinnell would proceed south of I-70 by the time we reached Colby.
As we proceeded home, skies produced spine-tingling drama.
Rising, roiling thunderheads, hail clouds, and curtains of rain held my attention as my husband steered WaKeeney-bound while listening to doom-filled weather reports. Near Colby, the weatherman announced hail and wind damage had closed eastbound I-70 at Exit 76 in Oakley. I requested a potty break in case damage required an extended closure.
Leaving Colby under sunny, calm conditions, we reached the west edge of Oakley where fine weather continued and traffic moved unimpeded.
It wasn’t 'til a few miles down the road we spied stalled vehicles with shattered windshields parked on the shoulders awaiting tow-trucks. While most impaired autos and trucks pulled safely to the shoulder, one ended up near the fence-line across the ditch. At that point, we saw Mother Nature had annihilated recently thriving crops on either side of I-70.
All I could think of as we drove past one destroyed field after another was how those folks in Grinnell now faced another clean-up and rebuild so soon after their recent tornado. I’m sure many required another new roof, siding, window, and/or vehicle repair. Who knows how many miles of crop destruction exist.
While I’m grateful our trip to Cabela’s delayed us enough to miss that storm, the future holds no guarantees. After all, we live in a town where wind-driven hail totaled nearly every roof and car parked outside in 2017 in a storm like this one.
Western Kansans may live in paradise, but it turns on them occasionally. Destroyed vehicles and crops reminded us of that directly after it occurred on August 3rd.
Karen Madorin is a retired teacher, writer, photographer, outdoors lover, and sixth-generation Kansan.