By EMILY BEHLMANN

ebehlmann@gctelegram.com

Severe weather that swept through southwest Kansas Thursday put many area counties under tornado or thunderstorm warnings, but according to area sheriffs' offices, the storms that developed caused little damage.

The Lane County Sheriff's Office reported that a portion of the roof was torn off an abandoned school in Amy Thursday night, but that the high winds there didn't cause any other major problems. According to the National Weather Service, wind speeds reached 70 mph in the area.

Several counties were under a tornado warning for part of Thursday night, but the only reports of tornado touchdowns in the area came in the afternoon in Greeley and Wichita counties, according to Frederick Kruse, meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Dodge City office.

Tornadoes were spotted at 2:27 p.m. seven miles southeast of Tribune in Greeley County, at 2:35 p.m. one mile south of Selkirk in Wichita County, and at 2:49 p.m. six miles southeast of Selkirk, according to weather service logs.

According to the sheriffs' offices in Greeley and Wichita counties, there were no reports of damage as a result of the tornadoes.

Kruse said the severe weather was the result of an upper air disturbance.

"It's like if you take your hand into some water and make a wave -- the same thing in the atmosphere," he said.

With sufficient moisture, such a disturbance can lead to severe weather, he said. Moisture, with dew points in the mid- to upper-50s, was short of what it would take to produce many large tornadoes, but it did produce a few, plus some other severe weather, Kruse said.

"It was enough to kick off a decent round of showers and thunderstorms," he said.

There were also some reports of golf ball-sized hail in a line from Jetmore to the area just north of Garden City, Kruse said.

Finney County Emergency Management Coordinator Cathy Hernandez said her department didn't receive any damage reports from hail and wind.

"Finney County was lucky," she said.

There were no other reports of damage from area sheriff's offices.

Kruse said there is potential for isolated thunderstorms near the Colorado border today and tonight, but that because there is no upper air disturbance, the system is much weaker than Thursday's, and severe weather is not expected.