By TOMMY REZAC
St. Joseph Post
A strong storm system is making its way across the Midwest eventually made its way to the Missouri River valley Wednesday afternoon and evening.
The entire region, including all of northwest Missouri and northeast Kansas, remain under a High Wind Warning until midnight Wednesday night.
A strong line of thunderstorms fired across central Nebraska Wednesday, spawning wind gusts of 75-85 mph, in addition to a few confirmed tornadoes near the Grand Island and Columbus areas.
This line of storms moved rapidly eastward toward the Missouri River valley, getting into the St. Joseph region right around 5 p.m.
Power lines and tree limbs have been reported down in St. Joseph, Maryville and Savannah.
Hail 1.75” in diameter was reported in Maryville. An 80 mph wind gust was reported two miles north of Watson in Atchison County, Kansas. Roof and power pole damage has been reported near the city of Atchison, Kansas as well Lancaster
A 90 mph wind gust was reported in Tarkio, MO by local law enforcement. Power poles were reported broken just northeast of Lathrop. A barn has collapsed in Easton, Missouri.
The winds forced the Fairfax and Rock Port school districts, along with Peru State College, to dismiss classes early Wednesday. Trenton Public Schools canceled all after school activities for Wednesday evening.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol reported a semi that tipped over on southbound I-29, about two miles north of Mound City, while mass power outages were reported in and around St. Joseph. Over 18,000 Evergy customers in St. Joseph alone have lost power.
Dust storms were also a problem across portions of central Kansas and southeast Nebraska.
Interstate 70 from Hays, KS to the Colorado border was closed in both directions Wednesday due to low visibility.
The storms will move out of the area late Wednesday night, and bring behind it cooler temperatures in the 40s and 50s for the next week or so.
It appears a mostly dry weather pattern will persist through Christmas as well.
"I can't rule out anything but it doesn't look like we'll have a white Christmas this year," National Weather Service meteorologist Jonathan Kurtz said. "If we do, I know a lot of people wouldn't be that upset at that forecast if I was wrong. But, right now, it looks like it'll be more of a mild Christmas for us."
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