With a potentially severe weather system moving into the area Wednesday, the National Weather Service in Dodge City is hoping to get its radar back into service soon.

The radar, which covers a wide swath of Kansas including Ellis County, is undergoing regular replacement of panels and has been out of service since yesterday.

Meteorologist Marc Russell said radars in other sites — Goodland, Wichita and northwest Okalahoma, for example — are helping cover the area during the repairs, which will last at least part of Tuesday.

“We don’t stop what we’re doing,” he said. “We will use the other radars to the best of our ability.”

A dryline followed by a cold front is expected to push into the area Wednesday, with storms possible late Wednesday afternoon and into the evening.

Russell said he expected a severe weather watch to be issued sometime Wednesday afternoon.

“The biggest threat is hail and wind,” he said. “It doesn’t look real favorable for tornadoes.”

Russell said that hail could be baseball sized and forecasts call for the wind to gust up to 43 mph. He said the possibility of tornadic activity couldn’t be discounted but said it didn’t appear to be a “big outbreak” day.

Tuesday night, there is a 20 percent chance of storms developing, and wind gusts could reach 34 mph.

Related story: Detailed forecast from National Weather Service.