Active start to regional severe weather season

Severe weather season has started off with a bang in parts of Kansas and Missouri this year, especially over the past month, with back-to-back episodes of damaging winds, hail, and tornadoes affecting the region. One way to quantify how much severe weather has taken place, is to get a count of warnings issued in a particular area. 

From January 1 to April 22 of 2026, the National Weather Service Kansas City / Pleasant Hill Office issued a combined 168 severe thunderstorm and or tornado warnings across their forecast area, which covers 37 Missouri counties and 7 Kansas counties. By this metric, 2026 has been the second busiest severe weather season on record to date for the Kansas City weather forecast office, rivaled only by 2006 when 179 severe thunderstorm / tornado warnings were tallied by April 22.

One of the many tornado warnings issued so far this year included parts of Atchison County Kansas along with sections of Buchanan and Platte County Missouri on April 17. The rotating supercell thunderstorm that triggered the warning did result in a brief tornado touchdown confirmed by a trained storm chaser a few miles south of the city of Atchison, near the intersection of 230th and Sheridan Rd. No damage was reported in the area, resulting in an EF-U (unknown) rating by the National Weather Service.

A tornado also touched down in Belton, MO on April 17, damaging trees, homes, and powerlines in the southern suburb of Kansas City. According to an updated damage survey, the tornado received an EF-1 rating with a path length of 4.8 miles.

Last week in general was a particularly active one for severe weather in the area, with a total of 7 confirmed tornadoes striking the NWS Kansas City / Pleasant Hill forecast area. Not to mention numerous reports of sizable hail and damaging wind gusts.

Believe it or not, the climatological peak in severe weather season has yet to take place here in the Mid-Missouri River Valley. Historically, the most active time for severe weather occurs from May through the first half of June regionally. During this time, an active jet stream tends to linger in the Central Plains, while heat and humidity reach a relative maximum. 

While every year is different when it comes to who sees the most action from tornadoes and strong storms, odds are we still have a ways to go before the 2026 severe weather season winds down for Northwest Missouri and Northeast Kansas.