Around these parts, usually if you just wait long enough, things change...we've gotten from brutally hot weather to more seasonable days this month. We've gone from really needing some rainfall to having, in some cases now too much again in spots. Today is a cloudy gray, showery day with readings mainly in the 70s in the region.

Of course the bigger story continues to be the severe weather that pelted many in the area again last night, knocking out power to 10s of thousands, toppling trees and downing power lines. There were several reports of SOFTBALL sized hail (impressive for this time of year here) and winds of 60-80 MPH through the area..

These are the reports from last night, all the green dots represent severe winds, while the blue dots show the larger hailstones....

Looking at the KCP & L website, there are still some 20000 customers without power this afternoon, they're making a dent in that number but it's going to take awhile to get where they want to be. Some 8000 customers on the Westar grid are without power as well.

That was night #2 and really the 3rd time, going back to the 1st weekend of the month that powerful storms ripped through the northland. Concerning Thursday nights outbreak of severe weather, the NWS has a write-up on the storms here

The showers today, aren't too bad and shouldn't last for much longer. I was in the Parkville Riverfest Parade today and while there were a few raindrops, it was OK...lots of folks there are without power as well. here is a picture I shot out the windshield when a 5 minute shower was in progress.

Not too pleasant for a few minutes to be sure. Thanks to all who were waving like crazy at yours truly.

let's move on, the rain chances, after this small wave moves by should be minimal for the rest of the weekend. By Monday another disturbance in the flow will approach the region and spark off additional showers and storms that should move through the region. The NAM has painted this much precip, and while the location of the heaviest rainfall is still in question the potential for an additional 1-2+" is realistic to start the new work week.

Speaking of rainfall...today KCI set a record for the most amount of rainfall on this date in our recorded history with 2.4" of rainfall. Very impressive...here are some other totals from around the area...

Doppler estimates paint the swath of heaviest rainfall...

Click on all those images to make them larger...

The tropics are active and now we're going to have to focus on a developing tropical depression towards the Leeward Islands as our potential 1st hurricane of the season. Harvey was the latest tropical storm that came ashore this afternoon near Belize, Mexico.  disturbance #1 on this image is the one that bears the most watching this week, as our computer forecasts have been pretty insistent on this threatening the SE part of the country later on this upcoming week.

The GFS brings it ashore in S FL, the Canadian does so in the FL Panhandle and the EURO also takes it into S FL. One key to the intensity of this is how the islands (especially Cuba) play a role in the storms potential strength. This may be one of those up and down storms for intensity which will make it tricky to forecast. The name Irene is next on the list of tropical storm names...

That's about it for today...a busy one for sure!

joe