Up to 6 tornadoes touched down around Kansas City region Sunday, early reports show

As many as half a dozen tornadoes may have touched down in northeast and northwest Missouri on Sunday afternoon as a storm system moved east from Kansas City to St. Louis, according to local meteorologists.

Sarah Atkins, a meteorologist with the local National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill, said teams were out surveying damage across the state Monday morning after storms blew across the region between about 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Sunday.

Multiple tornado warnings were issued as the system rolled through, though no injuries have been reported.

“We were watching numerous storms move across the area, especially north of Highway 36,” Atkins said.

Photo and video capture tornadoes Sunday north of Kansas City

As of 9 a.m. Monday, preliminary reports of Sunday severe weather for the Kansas City National Weather Service coverage area include:

• Tornado near Troy, Kansas

• Tornado near Sedalia, Missouri

• Multiple reports of tornadoes just west of Kingston, Missouri, in Caldwell County

• Tornado near Linneus, Missouri

• Tornado near Winigan, Missouri

• 1.5 inch hail in Breckenridge, MO

• Uprooted trees near Coffey, MO

While it could take a few days to assess, confirm and rate the level of damage caused by the storms and tornadoes, Atkins said the current information shows it’s possible between three and six different tornadoes popped up north of the Kansas City metro and in northern Missouri

While it’s not that unusual to have multiple tornadoes develop from one storm system, it’s more common to see the severe weather develop in the spring in summer, Atkins said. But fall tornadoes aren’t unheard of.

The last time the Kansas City coverage area saw October tornadoes in the forecast was 2018, according to the weather service. That year, tornadoes were sighted in Pickering, in Nodaway County; Judson, in Sullivan County; Knoxville, in Ray County, Polo; in Caldwell County; and Spickard, in Grundy County. All were spotted between October 8 and October 9.

On Sunday, all the ingredients were in place over a large area for severe weather conducive to tornadoes, Atkins said.

“The big takeaway is, severe weather is possible anytime of the year,” Atkins said. “No matter what season it is, and even no matter what type of weather, we always want to have multiple ways to receive warnings, and we want to make sure we’re staying updated on the forecast or not caught off guard.”