Surprise tornadoes in Kansas prompt concerns about changes at the National Weather Service

TornadoesSurprise tornadoes in Kansas prompt concerns about changes at the National Weather ServiceFor much of Monday, the NWS didn't anticipate a tornado threat for Kansas City — then five hit that evening. Did a change in weather balloon launches leave forecasters in the dark?Listen to this article with a free account00:0000:00Add NBC News to GoogleDangerous tornadoes rip across Midwest01:53Get more newsLiveonShareAdd NBC News to GoogleApril 16, 2026, 8:00 AM EDTBy Evan BushA tornado outbreak near Kansas City, Kansas, on Monday night came as a surprise.Subscribe to read this story ad-free Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.At least three injuries were reported after at least five tornadoes developed in areas southwest of the city. Several homes were damaged, trees were downed, and RVs were overturned. But in its Monday afternoon outlook, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, which forecasts severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, did not anticipate a tornado threat for the Kansas City area. The disconnect has prompted concerns among some outside meteorologists that ongoing changes to staffing and weather balloon releases at the NWS might be leaving forecasters in the dark about threats. Many forecasting offices in the Great Plains did not launch weather balloons at 7 a.m. Monday, as they have for decades, and instead they released the balloons at noon — a change that several meteorologists think was made because of staffing issues. “We are missing data at the normal times,” said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist and research manager at the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet, a statewide network of weather monitoring stations. He added that the staggered balloon launches Monday left a “big area over the southern Plains in the central United States without that weather balloon data, which might have caused the models to not forecast the day’s activity as well as it could have.” The strongest tornado in the Kansas City area Mo...