Forecasters issue tornado emergency in Kansas, Missouri — Tornado Tracker Live

Forecasters issued a rare tornado emergency on Monday as severe weather spread across the Plains, with tornado tracker live alerts flashing across Kansas, Nebraska and into Missouri. The storms brought multiple reported tornadoes, intense supercells and numerous warnings through the afternoon and evening.

About 3.5 million people were under a tornado watch, including Kansas City. Forecasters also issued several Particularly Dangerous Situation alerts, and the watch for part of east-central Kansas and west-central Missouri remained in effect until 1 a.m. local time.

Kansas City Under Watch

The new tornado watch covered part of east-central Kansas and west-central Missouri. The main threats were a couple of intense tornadoes, winds up to 75 mph and hail two inches in diameter.

Satellite imagery showed severe storms rapidly bubbling up across parts of Kansas and Nebraska, and photos circulating on social media showed a tornado northeast of Blue Rapids, Kansas. Storm reports were piling up across the region as the severe weather round pushed east.

Storm Damage Tuesday

Flooding remained a major overnight concern as rounds of heavy rain continued behind the storms. The threat was expected to continue for parts of the Central Plains through the overnight hours and shift east along with the cold front.

Survey teams were expected to assess storm damage Tuesday and determine the strength and paths of the tornadoes. Looking ahead to Tuesday, the strongest threat of severe storms stretched from Texas to the interior Northeast, with nearly 120 million people under some sort of storm threat.

Recent studies show that nighttime tornado fatalities have increased significantly over the years, adding weight to Monday night’s long-duration threat across the Plains.