OKLAHOMA CITY — Thunderstorms bearing hail as big as grapefruit and winds approaching hurricane strength lashed portions of the Great Plains on Tuesday, but arrived without the grand tornadoes that many had worried about for days.

A rope tornado brushed fields south of Wichita, Kan., and another small twister touched down in southwestern Indiana. As the sun went down on the western prairie, the Storm Prediction Center had received reports of bad weather from Texas to Nebraska to West Virginia, but none of it deadly.

Hail 4 inches in diameter fell in northern Kansas, northwest of Marysville, and winds hit 70 miles per hour in Missouri and Texas while storms went through.

Forecasters posted a tornado watch for Oklahoma and Texas until midnight, saying the atmosphere could still be unsettled enough for tornadoes to develop.

In the days ahead of the storms, forecasters had said a severe weather outbreak was possible Tuesday, perhaps including tornadoes that could stay on the ground for miles. Bad weather is expected again Wednesday in Arkansas and Missouri, then later in the week in Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.

Ahead of the storms, businesses set out to protect their goods while school districts sent children home early.

Workers scrambled to protect planes at the Spirit of St. Louis Airport in Chesterfield, Mo., when the winds picked up and the sky turned green.

‘‘And I mean green green,’’ aviation director John Bales said. ‘‘It was pretty violent but luckily we didn’t have any substantial damage.’’

Mid-Del Public Schools, in the Oklahoma City suburb of Midwest City, said in a statement that the safety of students and staff is a priority, noting that it reworked its tornado safety plan three years ago after a twister killed seven schoolchildren in the neighboring suburb of Moore.

Associated Press