Central States BREAKING NEWS: Video of Flash Flooding In Northeast Oklahoma

This video- courtesy of Tulsa Channel 8- shows flash flooding along U.S. 69 in Pryor-OK..


Serious flash and river flooding is on-going in the Tulsa area- and is forecast to continue this weekend.

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Kansas City's BREAKING NEWS: Cop Shot At KC-MO Police Shooting Range

At 10:46 am- KC-MO emergency services were responding to 6900 Coal Mine Road at the KC-MO Police shooting range on the report of a police officer shot there.

There is yet no word on the circumstances of this shooting nor the officer's condition.

Update here as received....
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UPDATE - The officer was actually an U.S. Army officer out practice shooting at the PD range who shot himself in the foot.

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Some Wet April 2009 - Rainfall Totals in Metro Kansas City

Here are some April rainfall totals from Overland Park's "Stormwatch" system of weather stations- stream and rain gages located throughout southern and southwestern Metro K.C. (most in Johnson County-KS).

Locations are mostly self-explainatory- but questions as to the gage's location can be answered at the Stormwatch site.

Click on these rainfall amount images for full size.


Rainfalls upwards of nearly one foot saturated Metro Kansas City in April. The areas with the heaviest rainfall were in a swath from southern Leavenworth county- across Wyandotte county-KS into southern Platte and Clay and northern Jackson in MO.

Another swath of heavier rainfalls were found across southern Johnson county KS eastward across southern Jackson and northern Cass counties MO..

Soils are saturated area-wide now- forecasted future rainfalls will become mostly runoff and this makes the flash flooding threat very high for the Metro.

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'Baron of Blue Valley' "Skip" Sleyster Dies

I met Duren "Skip" Sleyster during a meeting on Blue Valley flood control in 1990.

"Skipster" as I called him was a Kansas Citian of the old school. A "doer."

Wearing coveralls- Mr. Sleyster stood at the back of the room where he growled out questions for the speakers (one of whom was future mayor Funkhouser).

Skip Sleyster wasn't the simple man he appeared to be. Almost single-handedly over a period of 40 years- Mr. Sleyster attempted to bring Blue Valley- once vibrant with industry that left America- back to life.

He tried to find viable uses for old buildings- like the General Motors Leeds plant and the huge Montgomery Wards distribution center at St. John & Belmont.

It took all of Skip's 85 years. Yesterday it took his life.

Duren "Skip" Sleyster died peacefully at home Thusday morning.

Visitation will be Monday 5-6pm at the Ararat Shrine Temple at 5100 Ararat Drive with Masonic services at 7:30pm.

Burial will be at Floral Hills at Blue Ridge and Gregory with a service prior at 1pm Tuesday.

"Skip" Sleyster tried to make his hometown of Kansas City a better place.

Thanks Skipster!!!

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Metro K.C. BREAKING WEATHER: Flash Flood Warning

This was just issued by the NWS-Pleasant Hill-KC:

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
FLASH FLOOD WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE KANSAS CITY/PLEASANT HILL MO
1039 AM CDT THU APR 30 2009

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN PLEASANT HILL HAS ISSUED A

* FLASH FLOOD WARNING FOR...
EASTERN LEAVENWORTH COUNTY IN NORTHEAST KANSAS...
NORTHERN JOHNSON COUNTY IN EAST CENTRAL KANSAS...
SOUTHERN CLAY COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL MISSOURI...
SOUTHERN PLATTE COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL MISSOURI...
WESTERN JACKSON COUNTY IN WEST CENTRAL MISSOURI...
WYANDOTTE COUNTY IN NORTHEAST KANSAS...

* UNTIL 300 PM CDT

* AT 1035 AM CDT...NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR
INDICATED AN AREA OF MODERATE TO HEAVY SHOWERS CONTINUING TO TRACK
ACROSS THE KANSAS CITY METROPOLITAN AREA. GROUND OBSERVATIONS SHOW
THAT UP TO THREE QUARTERS OF AN INCH OF RAIN HAS FALLEN SINCE 7
AM FROM NEAR DOWNTOWN TO NEAR OLATHE...OVERLAND PARK AND
GRANDVIEW. THIS ACTIVITY IS EXPECTED TO CONTINUE THROUGH 11 AM
BEFORE A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS CONTAINING TORRENTIAL RAINFALL
MOVES ACROSS THE AREA. THIS WILL LIKELY RESULT IN AN ADDITIONAL
INCH OF RAINFALL THROUGH NOONTIME...WITH HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE.

* RUNOFF FROM THIS EXCESSIVE RAINFALL WILL CAUSE FLASH FLOODING TO
OCCUR. SOME LOCATIONS THAT WILL EXPERIENCE FLOODING INCLUDE...
BASEHOR...BONNER SPRINGS...CLAYCOMO...DE SOTO...EDWARDSVILLE...
FAIRWAY...GLADSTONE...GRANDVIEW...INDEPENDENCE...KANSAS
CITY...LAKE QUIVIRA...LANSING...LEAVENWORTH...LEAWOOD...
LENEXA...LIBERTY...MERRIAM...MISSION...MISSION HILLS...
OLATHE...OVERLAND PARK... PARKVILLE...PRAIRIE VILLAGE...
RAYTOWN...RIVERSIDE...SHAWNEE AND SUGAR CREEK.

THIS INCLUDES PORTIONS OF INTERSTATES 35...70...29...AND THE 435
LOOP.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...

EXCESSIVE RUNOFF FROM HEAVY RAINFALL WILL CAUSE FLOODING OF SMALL
CREEKS AND STREAMS...URBAN AREAS...HIGHWAYS...STREETS AND UNDERPASSES
AS WELL AS OTHER DRAINAGE AREAS AND LOW LYING SPOTS.

FLOODING IS IMMINENT WITH THE EXPECTED RAINFALL. MOST FLOOD RELATED
DEATHS OCCUR IN AUTOMOBILES. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CROSS WATER COVERED
BRIDGES...DIPS... OR LOW WATER CROSSINGS. NEVER TRY TO CROSS A
FLOWING STREAM... EVEN A SMALL ONE...ON FOOT OR IN A VEHICLE.

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K.C. Metro BREAKING WEATHER: Record Flooding On The Platte River

UPDATE/CORRECTION - 1137 CDT: The latest reading from this Platte river gage indicates the prior reading observed and imaged here was bogus.

The actual forecasted crest is just over 33 feet Friday morning.

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The location indicated for record flooding is at Sharp's Station on the Platte River in Platte county-MO- northeast of Platte City.

The current flood crest reads more than 43 feet (43.13) at that location- according to a USGS gage there.


The highest flood crest on record at this location is 36.43 ft on July 26-1993. That has been surpassed by more than 6 feet.

Also- flooding is expected in the small community of Tracy-MO.

The current Platte river reading at Tracy is 27.3 feet. At 25 feet- 1st Street in Tracy was overtopped.

The forecast crest is 28.9 feet Friday afternoon. At 29 feet- Missouri Highway (M-) 92 is flooded in Tracy.

More rain is expected for the next 24 to 48 hours- and this will only worsen conditions on the Platte river as well as all other area streams and rivers.

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K.C. Metro-MetroRegion WEATHER: Flash Flood Watch In Effect

The entire Kansas City Metro and MetroRegion- as well as a large part of the Central States- are included in a National Weather Service (NWS)- issued "Flash Flood Watch."

A large area of moderate to heavy rain is moving slowly across eastern Kansas and will begin to affect the Metro by early afternoon.

Soils are saturated and any additional rains will result in runoff into creeks and streams.

There is also a "slight risk" of severe thunderstorms later today- mainly over the western 1/2 of the Kansas City MetroRegion.

More here on CSW as needed....

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OMFG - Swine Flu Is Here - Take Cover - You Gonna DIE

It's the latest news media "flavor of the day."

Enjoy the hype Hype HYPE!!!


BULLETIN: The sun's shining and the birds happily chirping here....

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Central States WEATHER: NWS-SPC - Severe Storm Risk Thursday and Friday

Large parts of the Central States- including Metro and MetroRegion Kansas City are under a forecasted "slight risk" of severe thunderstorms and their accompanying weather on Thursday and Friday.

It addition to the severe weather threat- this new storm system will again bring heavy rainfalls to the Central States as well as our local area.

So later this week- again the chance for severe thunderstorms and heavy- possibly flooding rainfalls.

More on this here later....

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K.C. MetroRegion WEATHER: NWS-SPC- Severe Thunderstorm Watch No. 201 - MO-KS-AR-OK

The Storm Prediction Center in Norman-OK has issued Severe Thunderstorm (ST) Watch Number 201 that will be in effect until 7 PM this Monday evening.


As shown in the NWS-SPC graphics (click-on for full size)- the only Kansas City MetroRegion counties included in ST Watch No. 201 are Vernon in MO and Bourbon in KS- the cities of Nevada and Fort Scott respectively.

Here's the latest visible satellite and Doppler weather radar images:

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Kansas City's AM "News-Radio" Stations Not There Saturday Evening

The broadcast media holds the licenses to their communities partially in exchange to providing news and public service to that community.

If that were the SOLE reason for local radio stations to keep their licenses- many Kansas City stations would go silent after Saturday evening's severe weather.

I switched around the AM dial during the height of the severe weather and tornado touch-down in Leavenworth county Saturday evening.

KMBZ- KCMO- 610 - the ONLY station with ANY live programming was 610 carrying the Royals game at Kauffman Stadium.

The other so-called "news-talk" station were certainly doing the talk part- with syndicated programs from elsewhere.

Very little if any breaking severe weather news.

Either you serve your listening public properly or quit advertising that your station is the place to tune into when the skies darken.

Saturday evening's AM radio coverage of the severe weather and tornado event gets an "F."

I'll stick to my scanners for news here on out....

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