Strong, gusty winds remain after tornado watch, warning for Kansas City expire
Tornado sirens sounded across Kansas City’s Northland as powerful storms pushed through the Kansas City metro area Tuesday.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of Clinton, Clay and Platte counties shortly after 10 a.m. after radar indicated rotation in a thunderstorm near Smithville. The warning, however, has since expired. A tornado watch for the entire Kansas City metro area has also been canceled.
Strong, gusty winds, however, remain. Shortly before 4 p.m., winds of 30 mph gusting above 50 mph were reported at Kansas City International Airport.
In a tweet about 20 minutes later, the weather service said threat of severe weather has come to an end across the region. All severe weather watches, warnings and advisories have been lifted.
However, the strong gusty winds will remain around for a awhile as Kansas City remained under a wind advisory until 7 p.m.
The weather service warned that the gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects, and tree limbs and power lines could be downed.
Tornadoes reported in storms
The weather service had sent a team to investigate whether a tornado had touched down as storms blew through the Smithville area, said Sarah Boyd, a Clay County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.
The storms caused minor damage to the Smithville Lake campgrounds as they passed through, Boyd said.
Reported damage included an overturned camper at the Camp Branch campground, the roof blown off the Kansas City Trapshooters Association building at 6420 NE 176th Street, power lines down near Mt. Olivet Road and Northeast 144th Street and trees down in the 17900 block of Collins Road, Boyd said.
In Kansas, two tornadoes were confirmed to have touched down Tuesday morning south of Topeka.
An EF1 tornado touched down in central Osage County at 5:51 a.m. and remained on the ground for about six minutes. During that time, peak wind speeds reached 110 mph. The tornado had a path of 3.5 miles and a maximum width of 100 yards.
No injuries were reported, and the tornado damaged mainly trees, although a home was shifted on its foundation.
A second tornado, also an EF1, touched down southwest of Overbrook, Kansas, and was on the ground for 10 miles, striking Richmond, Kansas. It had peak wind speeds of 100 mph and a maximum width of 75 yards. The tornado was on the ground for about 20 minutes, injured two people, and damaged several structures.
Power outages
In the Kansas City metro, numerous power outages were reported between 55th and 75th streets near the Kansas and Missouri border and downed power lines and outages in the Northland, including between Gladstone and Claycomo, near Ferrelview and east of Parkville. Downed tree limbs and power lines were reported near Linden and Willis avenues in Independence.
Evergy spokesman Shane Batchelder said in an email to The Star that after morning outages, crews were able to make “great” progress on restoring power, but another round of weather in the afternoon caused additional outages.
Across the utility’s full service area in both Kansas and Missouri, about 19,000 customers were without power as of 3 p.m., with a peak of 16,000 total customers seeing outages Tuesday in the metro area, he said.
“We expect most customers currently out of power to be restored by the end of the day, while some outages requiring pole replacements may take a little longer,” he said. “Our men and women will continue to work as safely and quickly as possible to restore service to those impacted. We continue to monitor the storm as it continues to impact parts of our area. We appreciate the patience of our customers while crews work.”
Around 3 p.m., the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department said its headquarters would be closed for the rest of the day because of a power outage. They said it would not impact the communications center or officer response to calls for service, according to a social media post.
Weather watches and warnings
A live data feed from the National Weather Service containing official weather warnings, watches, and advisory statements. Tap warning areas for more details. Sources: NOAA, National Weather Service, NOAA GeoPlatform and Esri.
