Rain, strong to severe thunderstorms kickoff Kansas City’s Memorial Day weekend
The Memorial Day weekend will get off to a rainy start as thunderstorms, some of which might be strong to severe, will roll through the metro area Friday, according to FOX4 meteorologist Karli Ritter.
“Later on today we’ll top out in the 70-degree range,” said Ritter, who provides weather updates to The Star. “We’re going to struggle because of the clouds and the potential for rain and thunderstorms leading into the middle part of our day.”
Rain and storms will be scattered until mid-morning Friday with more widespread storms rolling in around lunchtime and eventually pushing away by early afternoon, she said.
“The evening hours look quite nice,” Ritter said. “Heading into the weekend, we’re going to see our chance for rain decreasing on Saturday and Sunday during the day. Sunday night into Monday, rain chances increase.”
Highs through Memorial Day are expected to be between the low and mid-80s, she said.
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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.
The National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill said in its forecast that strong to severe storms are possible Friday with a broken line of storms developing along the Kansas and Missouri border late morning into the early afternoon.
The strongest storms will remain mainly south of Interstate 70, with large hail the size of half dollars and winds up to 60 mph possible, the weather service said.
A second round of storm is possible Friday night north of the Kansas City area in northeast Kansas and far northwest Missouri. A strong storm or two is possible with quarter-sized hail and wind up to 60 mph the primary threat. The risk of tornadoes remains low, the weather service said.
Multiple rounds of storms are expected Sunday through Tuesday.
