Tornado Watch Issued for Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma; Hail, Damaging Winds and Possible Intense Tornadoes Expected

The National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center issued Tornado Watch 130 at 1:35 p.m. CDT Friday for parts of Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, warning that conditions could support tornadoes, very large hail and damaging winds through 9 p.m. CDT. The alert covers a broad region where severe storms are possible; it is a watch, not confirmation that a tornado has occurred.

According to the Storm Prediction Center, the watch includes south-central and eastern Kansas, northern and west-central Missouri, and northern and western Oklahoma. The agency said the main threats include a few tornadoes, with a couple of intense tornadoes possible, along with widespread damaging winds. Isolated wind gusts could reach 85 mph, and scattered large hail is possible, with isolated stones up to 4 inches in diameter.

The Storm Prediction Center said thunderstorm development was already underway Friday afternoon along a southeastward-moving cold front stretching from northwest Missouri into northwest Oklahoma. Ahead of that front, the agency said, the atmosphere was very unstable and strongly sheared — a combination that can help severe thunderstorms rotate and organize into supercells, a storm type capable of producing tornadoes, large hail and damaging winds. The center said hail may be the main early threat before storms potentially grow into a line capable of producing 70 to 80 mph gusts from south-central Kansas into central Missouri.

A tornado watch means conditions are favorable for tornadoes and severe thunderstorms across and near the watch area for several hours; it does not mean a tornado has been sighted or detected. County-based tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings are issued by local National Weather Service forecast offices when dangerous storms develop or are indicated by radar, and those are the next alerts residents should monitor Friday evening.

As of the time covered by the research, the Storm Prediction Center’s preliminary storm reports did not yet show any tornado or wind reports tied to this event in the previous three hours. The agency’s preliminary log listed one hail report: quarter-size hail at Lanton, Missouri. Those reports are early and not final confirmed counts, but they indicated that the main public-safety development Friday afternoon was the elevated risk across the watch area rather than confirmed tornado damage.