The National Weather Service (NWS) in Springfield has already issued multiple tornado warnings on Tuesday afternoon across the Ozarks. Tornado warnings have been issued for towns such as Mansfield, Hartville, Niangua and Marshfield.
The small towns of Plato and Competition are also under a tornado warning.
The National Weather Service (NWS) in Springfield has issued a tornado watch across the Ozarks, which is in effect until 7 p.m. (map courtesy of NWS Springfield Twitter page)
The NWS’ tornado watch goes until 7 this evening for 14 southwest Missouri counties, including the cities of Springfield, Branson and Ava.
Meantime, the National Weather Service (NWS) in St. Louis has issued a tornado watch for much of central, eastern and southeast Missouri until 10 this evening. Cities in the tornado watch area include St. Louis, Jefferson City, Columbia, Troy, Farmington and Poplar Bluff.
NWS Springfield meteorologist Cory Rothstein says West Plains is also in the watch area. He says the watch area there is primarily along, south and east of the I-44 corridor.
Rothstein says golf-ball sized hail and 70 mile-per-hour winds are possible, along with additional flooding.
Mr. Rothstein warns motorists and truck drivers about the additional flooding.
“The main concern also with this will be additional flooding of upwards of two inches on a localized basis, in addition to the two to five inches we saw yesterday with yesterday’s storms,” Rothstein says.
Rothstein says the ground is already saturated across the Ozarks, because of heavy May rainfall.
“So far to date we’ve actually gotten about six inches here in the Springfield area, which is about two-and-a-half inches above normal,” says Rothstein.
The NWS in Pleasant Hill says Kansas City has already received 7.46 inches of rain in May. NWS notes the normal rainfall amount for the entire month of May in Kansas City is about five inches, and today is only May 21.
The NWS in Pleasant Hill also warns that isolated tornadoes are possible today across a large section of Missouri, including Kansas City.
The state Department of Transportation’s (MoDOT) traveler map says about 300 state roads are closed.
Click here to listen to Brian Hauswirth’s interview with National Weather Service Springfield meteorologist Cory Rothstein, which was recorded on May 21, 2019:
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