On Monday afternoon, strong to severe thunderstorms blew through Johnson County and much of the Kansas City metro, knocking down trees and cutting power to thousands of residents.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for the region at about 1:40 p.m. That watch warned of the potential for widespread hail, possibly as large as apples, and scattered wind gusts that could reach 70 mph.
About two hours later, the first severe thunderstorm warning was issued at approximately 3:20 p.m. Forecasters warned of the potential for up to ping-pong ball-sized hail across much of Johnson County.
Emergency management personnel and trained weather spotters reported several areas of hail ranging in size from pea- to golf ball- size across the Kansas City area. Reports in Johnson County were as large as a quarter size, or approximately one inch.
Gusty winds blew through Olathe, where a measured wind gust of 76 mph was reported, prompting a Wireless Emergency Alert to be sent out to many parts of the Kansas City area warning of the potential for 80 mph wind gusts and advising people to take shelter in a sturdy building away from windows.
Damage from the storms in Johnson County was mainly done to trees and utility lines.
At its height, utility Evergy said 75,000 customers in its Kansas City service area were impacted by outages.
On Tuesday morning, Evergy said it had restored power to about 80% of those customers who had lost power.
Evergy’s outage map showed more than 3,000 customers in Johnson County still without power Tuesday morning, concentrated primarily in Olathe, Overland Park and Prairie Village.
In Overland Park, winds brought down large portions of three trees, just southwest of Shawnee Mission South High School, along Lamar Avenue between 107th and 108th streets. Power was also out in the immediate area. The downed trees blocked both lanes of Lamar Avenue.
Further south in Olathe, firefighters responded to a tree on a house at 519 E. Spruce St. The large tree came down on the east side of the home, causing significant damage to the roof.
Another large tree was snapped just outside the Olathe Community Center at 1205 E. Kansas City Road. The tree was near the playground on the west side of the building.
Overland Park and Shawnee firefighters responded to reported water rescue calls shortly before 5 p.m. No one was found to be in distress at either of the calls, however.
The storms prompted some officials in some Johnson County cities, including Gardner and Prairie Village, to cancel regularly scheduled city council meetings Monday evening.
Parts of central Overland Park also saw quarter-sized hail and flash flooding, as crews did find high water across the road in the 7800 block of East Frontage Road in Overland Park.
At least two vehicles were damaged by their drivers attempting to drive through the water at that location. Overland Park Police blocked the street off until the water receded.
No serious injuries were reported following any of Monday afternoon’s severe weather events.
The National Weather Serviced finally lifted its tornado watch for the Kansas City region at around 11 p.m.
