The Official Kansas City Weather Thread

[KCMax]

Tornados don't hit urban areas.

[lock+load]

Tornados don't hit urban areas.

They hit trailer parks.  What's right across from the K?  Trailer park!  Blow that m'fer K away!

[KCrules]

People who live in a trailer park had better pay attention to the weather more than anybody else around town. I think your asking for it living in a tin can!

[bahua]

It is interesting how you don't often hear about downtown areas getting directly hit by tornadoes. My roommate has a theory that if downtown areas were prone to tornadovulation, there wouldn't be a great gathering of people in that spot. Seems to kind of make sense.

[scooterj]

Hail downtown

Where?  I'm at 10th & Walnut and we didn't get squat.  Just a little rain.  The usual blandness.

[KCMax]

My fiancee says the heat of an urban area keeps tornadoes away. Not sure why. She's the science geek, not me.

[bahua]

Where?  I'm at 10th & Walnut and we didn't get squat.  Just a little rain.  The usual blandness.

I think he was saying "hail downtown," like "hail mary," or "heil downtown!"

[KCrules]

That's crap...the frequency in which tornadoes strike is so random that for one to hit a major metro area is nearly impossible. Although it has rarely happened, it can and will. All those myths about the tonganoxie split, metro protection, etc is so not true.

[scooterj]

I do believe in the Tonganoxie split because I watched this storm on radar, all excited, suddenlly split apart just before downtown, the gap move over downtown, and then the storm reseal itself once it was past the core.

But tornados hit downtown Salt Lake City and downtown Miami (or some other FL city) in the past decade so it's definitely possible.

[KCrules]

May, 2003 was just a glimpse of what could happen. Just wait awhile, the weather has no regard for concrete or dirt.

[voltopt]

correct - besides, tornadoes have hit our downtown before - over a hundred years ago, destroying the jackson county courthouse at 2nd and main and the original hannibal bridge.

[KCN]

Tornadoes never hit downtowns, like Fort Worth,



Nashville,



Miami,



Topeka,



or Salt Lake City. 




The perception that storms always weaken or split before hitting one location is a widespread one, and almost always only because storms are constantly changing and evolving.  Chances are, if you've been watching a storm approach from the west, it is going to weaken or redevelop before it hits you, because that's what storms do.

[warwickland]

currently hail @ umkc campus 

[scooterj]

Well, as usual, both of today's storms managed to miss me entirely other than a little rain.  However, for about 45 seconds this afternoon, I did have a nice rainbow.

[KCLover]

Of course downtown KC gets tornados, just look here.

[SouthKC1985]

Of course downtown KC gets tornados, just look here.

The people in this picture driving on I-35 and I-670 don't seem to care. Anyway, my car looked more like a severe dirt storm hit it last night than a severe thunderstorm. Car washes should be packed today

[Steve52]

Living on the edge of Z




Screenshot of the nuclear explosion depicted in 1983's The Day After. This scene was filmed on K-10 Highway between Lawrence, KS and Kansas City, MO, heading towards Kansas City, near the DeSoto, KS exit off the highway



Better put up my umbrella!

[scooterj]

Anyway, my car looked more like a severe dirt storm hit it last night than a severe thunderstorm. Car washes should be packed today

Yeah, I saw just enough rain yesterday to stir the dirt around on my car.  Could have at least had the decency to rain enough to actually rinse some of it off.

[StL_Dan]

We got the perfect amount of rain in Olathe to water in the dose of Scott's fertilizer and Halts I put down at 11pm Wed night.

[Roanoker]

Tornados don't hit urban areas.

When I was in a Kansas City grade school (yeah, I can remember that far back), a tornado struck Ruskin Heights. The Kansas City Star published a photo of the severely damaged high school, proudly displaying the letters, "RU  IN"