Storms are expected to bring heavy rain, damaging winds and hail to primarily western and central Missouri this afternoon and evening.

Weather graphic courtesy: National Weather Service.

Weather graphic courtesy: National Weather Service.

The storms have brought high rainfall totals to Kansas this morning but National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Bowman says that doesn’t mean they will have run out of moisture to present a flooding threat in Missouri.

“You’ve got to keep in mind there’s a lot of moisture available in the atmosphere for the storms to work with, and the movement of the storms themselves will be relatively slow,” says Bowman, “so you have a combination of a very heavy rainfall potential over a small area, and that would tend to lead to a more localized flash flooding threat.”

The weather service says there is only a very slight possibility today’s storms will produce tornadoes. They are not anticipated to impact eastern Missouri.

More severe storms are possible Sunday evening and overnight, primarily in northwest Missouri.