Thunderstorms Rapidly Intensifying. . .

12:24 AM UPDATE

After having a little panic attack there (haha), I'm beginning to analyze what happened, and what may still be happening, however I think the bow echo is now, truly, just that- strong, straight line winds. As it intensified east of Topeka, it absorbed many atmospheric disturbances. . . remnants of thunderstorms from earlier today, existing showers, heating from the surface, etc. Riding the cold front, it's easterly movement with winds from the west, and our winds from the south with the passage of the warm front earlier directly contrasted with each other. This created a situation where small, brief tornados could easily develop with any environmental trigger. . . like some of the existing low level clouds and showers over JOCO/Wyandotte from earlier. With the wind contrast and the surface disturbance, shear likely increased, and the updraft-veritcle rotation situation that occured allowed for a brief but scary spin up of a torando, possibly in numerous location. Many damage reports have come from JOCO in the last hour, with 'microburst' type damage, power outages, trees through houses, windows out. . . I've talked to a few people from my area in northeast JOCO who heard the same 'train roar' or loud 'whoosh' noise, something generally assosciated with tornados- especially the pressure drop evidenced by ears popping. So, while these tornados (if they were, remember this is not confirmed) were brief, they were potentially strong. Straight-line winds usually don't blow out windows and send trees through the house. . . they can do quite a bit of damage but that's a stretch. A microburst is possible, but downdrafts indicated a brief tornado threat was more likely. I mentioned this threat before the bow echo came through KC, and obviously it did cause some issues. . . many areas of rotation, many small spin ups likely happened. We'll know in the morning.

For the rest of the night. . . this line of strong thunderstorms will affect central and eastern Missouri, but is currently below severe limits and will likely stay that way. Penny sized hail and 50 mph wind gusts are possible.

More storms are moving up I35 from Emporia towards KC, these too could produce gusty winds and penny sized hail. Right now, I don't believe they will intensify, as our environment is more stable with the passing of the cold front. If something changes, I'll let you know. Flooding will continue to be a threat tonight into tomorrow morning.

This was an interesting night. . . I'll discuss it more tomorrow. Have a good, safe night everyone!

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I went ahead and deleted this portion of the blog as it contained mostly time-sensitive information about warnings.