Fall severe weather season sweeps parts of the heartland
By Jared Shelton News-Press NOW meteorologist
Severe weather can happen any time of year depending on atmospheric conditions, but spring is classically known for severe weather outbreaks across large swaths of the United States. The elevated risk for tornadoes, damaging winds and hail from March to May is well known from the deep south to the Midwest.
Best known for changing leaves, mild days and chilly nights, autumn doesn’t have a particularly ominous reputation when it comes to thunderstorm activity. Yet a secondary peak in severe weather annually takes place in many of the same areas that light up every spring.
Fall 2024 has been no exception when it comes to an increase in damaging winds, hail and tornadoes from the Mid-Missouri River Valley to the Southern Plains and Ozark plateau. Storms began ramping up locally through the final days of October, as a series of low-pressure systems tracked through the Central Plains accompanied by warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico.
The first instance of damaging fall thunderstorms locally swept parts of Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas on Oct. 24, as a line of intense storms tracked across the area. The Storm Prediction Center received more than 25 reports of damaging wind gusts through the region. Atchison County, Kansas, took the brunt of 70-plus mph winds, with scattered tree and powerline damage also concentrated in parts of south St. Joseph and the Kansas City metro.
The second round of locally damaging fall thunderstorms was more prolific, producing the worst damage seen so far this year in parts of southeast Nebraska and far Northwest Missouri. On Oct. 30, a fierce thunderstorm ransacked Falls City, Nebraska- with 80 to 90 mph straight-line wind gusts, before crossing into Holt, Atchison and Nodaway counties in Northwest Missouri. Numerous trees, power lines and poles were taken down in the path of the storm, along with damage to sheds, barns and grain bins, some of which were destroyed completely. Several semi-trucks were flipped along Interstate 29 in hard-hit Craig, Missouri, as the high-end straight-line winds ripped through.
Early November featured another severe weather outbreak farther south, spawning numerous tornadoes from Oklahoma to the Ozark Plateau over three days from Nov. 2 to 4. Flash flooding also rapidly developed across a large swath of southeast Missouri, despite recent drought conditions.
Strong storms are not anticipated to impact the area any time soon, but the recent instances of damage should be a reminder to keep our guard up regardless of the calendar.
