Crazy day of KC weather includes threats of strong winds, fire, hail and snow

Brace for some wild weather swings, Kansas City. Wednesday starts with a wind advisory and a red flag warning for critical fire conditions because of gusting wind and dry conditions.

Then those dry conditions are likely to give way to a line of strong to severe thunderstorms moving through the area in the afternoon and early evening, and even some light snow as colder air arrives early Thursday morning.

The thunderstorms carry the threat of damaging winds and hail, according to the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill, Mo. No snow accumulation is expected.

A tornado watch was issued until 10 p.m. Wednesday in Kansas and Missouri counties north of the Kansas City area.

Wednesday’s high will reach the upper 70s, but temperatures are forecast to drop into the 30s overnight, followed by a high of 50 Thursday and a low of 29 Thursday night.

The wind advisory, with gusts up to 45 mph, and the red flag warning remain through 8 p.m. Wednesday.

That same storm system is disrupting travel across the nation’s midsection.

No flights were being allowed to land at Denver’s airport on Wednesday morning, and departures were being delayed because of a powerful storm hitting Colorado and Wyoming, The Associated Press reports.

The heavy, wet snow typical of spring storms knocked out power to the airport’s fuel depot and deicing plant.

Blowing snow shut down long stretches of Interstates 25 and 80 in northern Colorado and Wyoming.

The storm system is expected to move across the central states and into eastern states on Thursday, bringing the threat of severe thunderstorms to the south and winter storms to the north.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 11:00 AM with the headline "Crazy day of KC weather includes threats of strong winds, fire, hail and snow."