Tornado watch issued for the Kansas City area as severe storms begin to fire
A tornado watch has been issued for a large portion of the Kansas City area as thunderstorms are expected to fire Wednesday afternoon in warm and very unstable air across the region.
The National Weather Service issued the watch, which is in effect until 9 p.m., for the metropolitan area, including Johnson, Wyandotte and Leavenworth counties in Kansas, and Clay, Platte, Jackson, Lafayette and Ray counties in Missouri.
The watch also includes Atchison and Doniphan counties in Kansas and 25 other counties in northeast, northwest, north-central and central Missouri.
The tornado watch is part of a larger one issued for portions of southern Iowa, central and eastern Kansas, northwest and north-central Missouri and extreme southeast Nebraska.
The watch area stretches roughly north and south of a line from Manhattan, Kansas, to Ottumwa, Iowa.
In an update earlier Wednesday, the National Weather Service said strong to severe storms were still expected across the Kansas City area, firing as early as the early afternoon, and bringing the threat of damaging winds, large hail, tornadoes, heavy downpours, and flooding.
The National Weather Service says the tornado and large to very large hail risks will be primarily associated with the first and isolated storms.
The storms are then expected to grow more widespread into clusters or a line, at which point the primary risks will shift more toward damaging straight-line winds and heavy downpours that could lead to flash flooding.
The Storm Prediction Center, part of the National Weather Service, has kept a large portion of the Kansas City area under an enhanced risk (Level 3 of 5) of severe weather.
The enhanced risk roughly covers areas from near Topeka to Paola and northeast through north-central and northeast Missouri, including the Kansas City metro Area.
The weather service said the storms may initiate early in the afternoon and continue through the remainder of the evening and into early Thursday. A flash flood watch has been issued for most of northern Missouri through 7 a.m. Thursday.
