‘Take shelter from this storm!’ NWS says as winds reach 80 mph in Olathe
With another line of strong to severe thunderstorms moving through the Kansas City area mid-day Monday, the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill urged people to take shelter.
“We just had a report of 80 mph winds out of Olathe Johnson County Airport!” the national weather service said on Twitter. “Take shelter from this storm!”
At Lee’s Summit Airport, winds reached 74 mph shortly after noon.
About 15 minutes earlier, the weather service said they were getting reports of strong wind and some damage around Edgerton, Kansas. Power poles were down and a semitractor-trailer had rolled over.
“As we move throughout the rest of this afternoon, we are going to continue to hold onto some very loud thunderstorms, possibly severe as well,” said Fox 4 meteorologist Alex Countee, who provides weather updates to The Star.
“The next round of thunderstorms will be coming in right around 1 or 2 o’clock this afternoon, pretty much right along I-35. We can’t rule out some large hail and some damaging wind gusts right over downtown Kansas City through the early afternoon.”
The line of strong storms will continue on to the east of Kansas City between 2 and 3 p.m.
“Still, it’s going to be a very loud afternoon all across town,” Countee said.
The main threat from the strong to severe storms are winds in excess of 60 mph and hail larger than 1 inch in diameter. The risk for flooding is low, he said.
“Luckily tornadoes are not much of a problem with this round,” Countee said.
As the storms move out of the area later Monday evening, the weather begins to calm down, he said. Light rain showers continue to push away from Kansas City into Tuesday morning.
Temperatures will remain in the 60s throughout the remainder of the week, which is cooler than the low 70-degree weather that Kansas City typically has this time of year.
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREHow we did this story
The Star produced this weather update in partnership with the local FOX4 television station. The station’s meteorologists create forecast videos multiple times a day for the newspaper to include in its weather reports.
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 12:26 PM.
