The National Weather Service let a tornado warning for Osage and Lyon counties expire at 11:45 p.m., ending a late-night alert that had kept parts of east-central Kansas watching the sky for a possible tornado.
The warning had covered locations including Reading, Allen and Admire, the places most directly in the path of the storm while it was active. For people tracking a Lawrence Ks Tornado event late at night, the important change was simple: the warning was no longer in effect after 11:45 p.m.
Just before that, at 11:17 p.m., a severe thunderstorm capable of producing a tornado was located 4 miles south of Allen and moving east at 45 mph. That left a narrow window in which the storm still had the potential to spin up something more dangerous even as the expiration time drew near.
The warning’s timing is what made it stand out. A storm can look like it is easing toward the end of a warning, but the weather service was still describing it as tornado-capable less than half an hour before the expiration, which is the kind of detail that keeps residents on alert until the last minute.
What was not confirmed in the available information was whether a tornado actually formed or whether the storm caused any damage. By 11:45 p.m., though, the formal warning was over, and the immediate threat named by the weather service had passed for Osage and Lyon counties.
