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<br />~j <br />I <br /> <br />V. HAIL DISTRIBUTION <br /> <br />Figures 5 and 6 portray differently the hail distribution for <br />western Kansas and for the state. Tables 3, 4, 5 and 6 present various <br />stratifications of hail distribution both statewide and .for the WKWM <br />Program target area. <br /> <br />Throughout the crop year, whenever insuring farmers sustain crop <br />hail damage they submit a claim for one or more sections of crap <br />damage. We count as a hail claim instance each section reported to <br />have sustained sufficient hail damage to warrant the submission of a <br />claim for it. As a result, hail can damage the same section of land <br />several times and will be counted each time. While Fig. 5 shows the <br />number of hail claims instances in each Kansas County, Fig. 6 gives a <br />graphic display. It must be pointed out that Fig. 6 was constructed <br />by assuming all the hail instances within a county occurred at the <br />center of each county, then those numbers were contoured. The only <br />value of Fig. 6 is to give the reader a better visual portrayal of the <br />hail distribution, By smoothing out the data this way over large <br />areas like Kansas quick visibility into general regions of hail damage <br />are easily provided. <br /> <br />It must be remembered that the numbers of hail claims seen here <br />represent only a fraction of the total losses due to hail; although <br />the numbers of farmers insuring crops can vary widely year to year, <br />overwhelmingly, a majority of area farmers do not insure their crops <br />each year, <br /> <br />I <br />I <br />J <br /> <br />Claims for the entire State of Kansas totaled 5,755---another low <br />number for a second year running! However, in the 1959 WKWM target <br />area the 1946 claims recorded in 1959 was a very large increase over <br />last year's 412 total claims, There are two reasons for the large <br />increase in hail damage in Western Kansas: <br /> <br />First, 1958 was a drought year for the entire state. The <br />correlation of hail to precipitation worked well in 1955 as we saw <br />fewer instances of both rainfall and hail, The abnormally low number <br />of hail claims were the least counted of any year since 1945, the date <br />our hail insurance information goes back to. In face, comparing the <br />hail damage in any other year to 1955 would also result in large <br />increases. <br /> <br />Second, the 1985 drought persisted into 1989 over much of Kansas <br />except in Western Kansas where rainfall in the May - August period <br />became abnormally high and where rainfall increases of over 100% were <br />experienced over large portions of the target area. Unfortunately, <br />with the excessive rainfall came greater tendencies for hail damage in <br />Western Kansas. The highly productive counties in southwest Kansas <br />that have irrigation were prime areas for potential crop-hail damage, <br /> <br />This was the first year in many that any county in the WKWM <br />Program target area held the state record for crop-hail insurance <br />claims. Haskell County received the dubious honor by having 770 <br />claims and 19 hail days and was the center of the action in 1959. If <br />one looks ahead to Section VI, Rainfall Distribution, Figures 5 and 6 <br />provide added visibility into the rain - hail relationship. <br />