Tornado Watch canceled for rural parts of Kansas City area
UPDATE: Around 4 p.m. the National Weather Service canceled this Tornado Watch for the Kansas City region as the severe weather threat diminished.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Parts of rural Missouri in the Kansas City area are once again under a Tornado Watch on Thursday.
The following Missouri counties are under a Tornado Watch until 9 p.m. Thursday: Bates, Henry, Johnson, Pettis and Saline. That includes the cities of Warrensburg, Butler, Clinton, Marshall, Sedalia and Warsaw.
View the latest Weather Alerts in the Kansas City region on FOX4
The Tornado Watch also extends to central Missouri, including Columbia and Jefferson City; southwest Missouri, including Springfield and Joplin; and all the way to St. Louis and Illinois.
A tornado watch is when the atmosphere has all the ingredients of a tornado, but there may not be one that forms. Simply put: Watch the sky and weather alerts in case severe weather forms.
If there’s a tornado warning, that means the severe weather is here now and you need to seek shelter immediately.
Massive ‘gorilla hail’ hits parts of Kansas and Missouri
The National Weather Service said the threat of tornadoes Thursday night in this area is low, but not zero. Widespread hail is likely for these counties, however, with possible wind gusts up to 70 mph.
Thursday’s Tornado Watch comes just hours after many parts of the Kansas City area saw severe thunderstorms, including large hail Wednesday night into early Thursday. A Tornado Watch was also issued Wednesday night for those storms.
Farther out west in Kansas, officials spotted several potential tornadoes in one county.
FOX4 will update this story if more severe weather develops Wednesday night.
