High winds caused a dark Memorial Day across parts of Kansas. Scattered power outages in Wichita and Salina were reported as very strong south winds continued to blow across the state.

The National Weather Service reported a gust of 49 mph in Wichita on Monday afternoon and 52 mph gusts earlier in the day in Salina and Russell. Whle all across the state dealt with very strong sustained winds as tempatures continued to rise.

Dispatchers say there had been isolated reports of power lines down, but none had triggered any grass fires. Power was quickly restored by line crews. The small outages did not seem to hamper most that were enjoying their holiday weekend.

 The Weather Service says the high winds were created by a tight pressure gradient across Kansas driven by a surface low forming in Colorado.