Weather officials find tornado damage, straight-line wind damage in Independence
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- NWS confirmed tornado damage near East Truman and Berry roads in Independence.
- Straight-line winds also caused damage south of the tornado’s path Tuesday.
- Heavy rain set a new June 3 rainfall record at KCI Airport with 2.53 inches.
A tornado is believed to have struck an area near Truman Road and Missouri 291 in Independence as strong thunderstorms rolled through the Kansas City metro on Tuesday afternoon.
A National Weather Service survey team on Wednesday found storm damage near the Truman Sports Complex, and near East Truman Road and Berry Road, said Brad Temeyer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pleasant Hill.
The damage near Berry Road was more consistent with a tornado, so the weather service issued a storm report for the tornado in that area, indicating that it struck around 2:37 p.m. Tuesday, Temeyer said.
“What’s interesting is that in this storm setup, there was also an area of straight-line wind damage that was immediately south of the tornado, and that was fairly strong as well, producing tree and power line damage,” Temeyer said.
The survey crew was trying to assess what was tornado damage and what was straight-line wind damage, Temeyer said.
The storm damage begins near Arrowhead and Kauffman stadiums, located near Interstate 435 and Interstate 70, then works its way northeast to the Truman and Berry roads area, where significant damage associated with the tornado was found, Temeyer said.
Once the crew finishes its survey, it will produce a final report that shows the track of the tornado, Temeyer said.
Independence “was walloped” by the severe weather, the city said on Facebook.
Independence Power and Light crews worked around the clock to restore power to more than 2,600 customers affected at the peak of the outage. Crews faced broken poles, downed lines and fallen trees.
The Independence tornado is the only one that the weather service has been able to confirm from Tuesday’s storm.
They are working with emergency managers to examine a second area near the Gardner area in Johnson County, aiming to determine whether straight-line winds or a tornado caused storm damage in that area.
“There was quite a bit of wind damage associated with the thunderstorms, and then also very heavy rain that fell, leading to flash flooding and then river flooding that we’ve seen across the region,” Temeyer said.
The storms brought record-breaking rainfall to the Kansas City area.
At Kansas City International Airport, the official weather station for the metro, 2.53 inches of rain fell on Tuesday, setting a new record for that date, according to the National Weather Service. The previous record was 2.25 inches, set in 2015.
