Hit-and-miss storms drench parts of Kansas City metropolitan area

A narrow band of showers and thunderstorms swept through the Kansas City area Monday, drenching some parts of the metro area while other parts remained dry.

A weak front over northwest and west-central Missouri basically cut Kansas City in half from east to west, said Mike July, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill. The dividing line appeared to be Interstate 35. Some of the heaviest rain fell in southwestern Clay County, which saw more than 4 inches of rain.

“Those people who lived west of I-35 had a front in the area. It was a weak one, but it was enough that storms fired up on them during the early afternoon hours,” he said.

The storms basically moved over the same areas repeatedly, creating flash flooding and heavy rains in some places, July said.

Radar detected a swath of heavy rains of 2 to 4 inches from northeast Johnson County to the Northland. The storms followed a very narrow path about 10 to 15 miles wide.

That created flooded streets in parts of Johnson County and in North Kansas City and Gladstone.

“Most of Jackson County was dry, except for the downtown area,” July said.

The storms began moving out of the Kansas City area about 4 p.m., but not before some sports complexes canceled league play for the evening.

The weather cleared, however, in time for the commencement program for Barstow School in south Kansas City to be held outdoors. White House press secretary Josh Earnest was the speaker.

The Kansas City area is in a chaotic weather pattern, which will be around through the rest of the week and the Memorial Day holiday.

“It’s looking like the heat and humidity is coming back into the picture,” July said. “It’s probably going to be more like what we should be expecting for this time in May.”

Humidity will also return. There’s a 40 percent chance of rain Tuesday, which could reach the Kansas City area in the morning hours, depending how storms develop in central Nebraska and Oklahoma overnight Monday.

“It’s rather complex because the storms we had this (Monday) morning and afternoon in the metro kind of messed the atmosphere,” July said.

Storms that were expected to form over Kansas were not forming after the air mass stabilized because of Monday’s storms.

“It’s one of those wait-and-see kind of things,” July said. “It’s not one of those things we can say with a high level of confidence that, yes, we are going to have storms in the metro again tomorrow.”

Because of the uncertainty, the forecast calls for a 40 percent chance of showers. If storms do develop, they could come first thing in the morning or wait until the afternoon hours to pop up.

It appears severe storm activity will hold off until Thursday, July said. The weather Kansas City is experiencing this week is more typical for later in June.

“We have gone from a relatively cool May to a early summer-type look to our atmospheric pattern,” July said.

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 80s Tuesday, with highs reaching the middle 80s on Wednesday and Thursday. It will cool off a bit to the 80s on Friday and the weekend. Rain remains in the forecast for every day and night for the next week.

“Basically, we are out of spring and headed to summer,” July said.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 8:27 PM with the headline "Hit-and-miss storms drench parts of Kansas City metropolitan area."