Merger of 2 thunderstorm systems over KC overnight a first for Weather Service staff
An explosive night of thunderstorms over the Kansas City area provided a first for staff on duty overnight at the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill.
The thunderstorms that blew through the metro about 1 a.m. Thursday developed from two separate complexes that merged together over the Kansas City area.
As the two complexes merged together, the weather service tweeted how unusual the event was.
“45 years of combined meteorology experience on this shift and . . . yep . . this is a new one,” the weather service said on Twitter.
The weather service further explained that the radar showed that one complex of thunderstorms was back-building from the east and merged with another complex of thunderstorms spreading from the west.
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but for us on shift we’ve never witnessed it in real-time,” the weather service said.
As the storms move out, the Kansas City area will settle into a much more quieter forecast, said FOX4 meteorologist Karli Ritter.
“Overnight and early this morning, we had a lot of thunderstorms blowing through the metro and we had a lot of wind reports as a result from St. Joe all the way down to the southeast side of Kansas City,” said Ritter, who provides weather updates to The Star.
“Now we’re settling into a quieter forecast with rain trying to work itself out,” she said.
The clouds and rain will move out of the Kansas City, allowing temperatures warming from the 60s into the 80s on Thursday. Highs could even flirt with 90 degrees, 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.
This story was originally published June 4, 2020 at 8:14 AM.
