Wednesday's storms trigger warnings, but do little damage

Weather Service says to expect more thunderstorms today

Streaks of lightning flash across the sky over the dome of the Missouri Capitol as the day's second round of severe thunderstorms enter the region Wednesday evening.
Streaks of lightning flash across the sky over the dome of the Missouri Capitol as the day's second round of severe thunderstorms enter the region Wednesday evening.

The first day of October felt more like spring than fall in Mid-Missouri.

Strong storms moved through late in the afternoon Wednesday setting off tornado sirens multiple times.

Cole County Emergency Management Director Bill Farr said the sirens worked as they should, going off when the warnings were issued and again when the storms had moved out.

Officials at the National Weather Service in St. Louis said there were no reports of any significant damage in Cole County, only scattered reports of trees down, but no property damage.

"There were lots of reports of wall clouds being spotted, but not much damage associated with those storms," said meteorologist Jon Carney. "There were several reports of strong wind gusts, including a 62 mph gust reported in Jefferson City."

The Weather Service issued a series of tornado warnings starting shortly after 4 p.m. as radar detected rotation capable of producing a tornado as the storms moved through Moniteau, northeastern Cole, southern Boone and southern Callaway counties. Hail up to an inch in diameter also was reported during these storms.

One weather spotter called Jefferson City police to report a funnel cloud at US 54/63. But a police officer already at the scene, reported that he saw nothing.

A second wave of severe thunderstorms prompted tornado warnings to be issued between 7 and 8:30 p.m. as they moved across Morgan, Miller and Cole counties, but the threat lessened as they moved east.

In Holts Summit, the fire department responded after winds blew over an 8-inch diameter tree and several large tree branches in a yard on Choctaw Ridge. They determined no action was needed after seeing no injuries or property damage.

Southern Callaway County residents were among those who lost power. Callaway Electric Cooperative reported 1,028 members without electricity, including 381 in the Holts Summit area and 626 in the Tebbetts/Mokane area, as of 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Crews worked to restore power after wind and rain knocked down tree limbs in Mokane and Tebbetts before 6 p.m. The second storm passed through after 8 p.m., knocking out power to Holts Summit area residents. Ameren Missouri reported very few outages in its central Missouri service area as of 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Due to the weather, Jefferson City Public Schools canceled all of Wednesday night's extracurricular activities, including the scheduled homecoming festivities.

The NOAA reporting station's hourly reports at the Jefferson City Airport shut down just before 5 p.m., but at 8 p.m. Weather.com reported Jefferson City had .31 inches of rain.

The weather service said overnight rainfall could bring some areas of Central Missouri 3 to 5 inches of rain.

And more storms are expected today.

"There's a slight risk for severe weather this afternoon and evening all across state," Carney said. "Then a cold front comes through around 3-4 a.m. Friday. That will bring very cool temperatures with highs in the 60's Friday and brisk winds with gusts up to 30 mph. By Saturday morning lows could be down to the mid 30's and the high Saturday might only hit 60. But, by mid-week next week the forecast has us getting back up to near 80 for a high once again."

The Fulton Sun contributed information to this story.