Strong thunderstorms moved through the Wichita area early Sunday, bringing down trees and power lines and forcing the cancellation of the second day of the airshow at McConnell Air Force Base.

The storms developed shortly before 6 a.m. and moved north through Sedgwick County, with strong winds and heavy rains.

Evergy was reporting around 8,500 customers without power in the Wichita area after the storm moved through.  Crews worked to restore electricity to the affected areas, and the number of affected customers was down to almost 600 by 5 p.m.

McConnell Air Force Base canceled its Frontiers in Flight Open House and Airshow for Sunday, because of winds that left damage to some of the facilities set up for the airshow.  The base’s chief of public affairs, John Van Winkle, said “because of damage to services, we were unable to execute a safe airshow.”    The highest wind gusts at the base were recorded at 54 miles an hour.    Pyrotechnics that were planned for use during the airshow were to be detonated Sunday afternoon.

Ten people had minor injuries on the base after the strong winds moved through the area from a “wet microburst” with the thunderstorms.   Six of the injured were military medical personnel and four were civilian vendors.   One civilian was taken to a local hospital, along with an airman, who was treated and released.   They were all outside on the flight line when the damaging winds occurred.   Spectators had not entered the base at the time of the storm activity.

KWCH Storm Team 12 meteorologist Dean Jones reported that a “heatburst” was reported at Eisenhower National Airport around 7 a.m.  The temperature rose from 81 to 92 degrees in half an hour.

[ photo:  Kansas Highway Patrol – Master Trooper Bob LeVelle – Facebook ]