Nighttime thunderstorms to sweep through Kansas City Tuesday bringing damaging winds
People are being urged to be on alert Tuesday, especially into the evening, as a line of strong to severe nighttime thunderstorms is expected to march across the Kansas City metro.
The line of storms is expected to develop Tuesday evening across parts of eastern Kansas, said Scott Blair, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Kansas City.
“That line is eventually going to start pushing southeastward towards the Kansas City area,” Blair said. “Once we get into the late evening hours, really more like closer to the midnight time frame, is when we’re expecting those storms to march through portions of the Kansas City metro area.”
The primary threat of the storms is damaging straight line winds along a squall line, he said. There may be some instances of large hail as well as an outside chance of an isolated tornado.
“The main concern is really going to be a straight line wind gust from all that cold air that’s being pushed outward from that line of storms,” Blair said.
Any hail the storms produce should only be up to the size of a quarter or maybe slightly larger, he said. Only one main round of strong to severe thunderstorms is expected.
“Once that line pushes south and east of the Kansas City area — as the cold front passes through — that should generally end any type of severe weather threat and push that concern to the south and east,” he said.
Rainfall totals will depend on the path of the heavier thunderstorms, but the chance of widespread flooding is low because the storms are expected to be fairly progressive and shouldn’t stall or move one area.
Because the threat of severe weather is coming at a time people are either in bed or headed to bed, Blair suggests they have multiple ways to receive weather alerts and warnings — whether that be a weather radio or some other form of receiving weather information.
The cold front could re initiate new storms on Wednesday, but the way the timing is now, any new thunderstorms are expected to develop well south and east of the Kansas City area.
Cooler and drier weather is expected on Thursday, with highs in the middle to upper 50s. Cooler temperatures are expected to continue into the Easter weekend, with highs in the middle 50s on Sunday. The normal high for this time of year in Kansas City is the mid-60s.
This story was originally published April 11, 2022 at 4:41 PM.
