FIRST WARN WEATHER DAY: Saturday to bring chance of hail and strong wind

KANSAS CITY, Kan. (KCTV) - With the latest update from the Storm Prediction Center, an Enhanced Risk (level 3 of 5) has been placed in our southern viewing area.

This is where the confidence is growing for the stronger thunderstorms to develop Saturday evening.

KCTV5 is declaring a First Warn 5 Weather Day for Saturday evening with this upgrade. Gusty winds and hail are the main concerns, and we cannot rule out a brief spinup.

After a nice soaking rain across the board, picking up 1-3″ in spots, we cleared out in the afternoon on Friday. The rest of Friday evening should be rather quiet and pleasant.

There is a super slim chance for a random pop-up light shower, but we should mostly stay dry. Overnight lows drop to the mid-60s. There is another chance at a random pop-up shower or generic storm early Saturday, but right now I think most of us will have a mainly dry day with lower 80s by the afternoon and moderate humidity.

As a cold front starts to invade in the early evening, however, we could see some thunderstorms develop.

For Saturday, this is an event we notified you about early in the week, and it still looks to pan out. A slight risk for severe weather is in place for the KC metro and points north. Those to the south, Anderson, Linn and Bates counties were upgraded to an enhanced risk (level 3/5) for severe weather.

The main goal for our KCTV5 First Warn 5 Weather team is to provide as much early warning as possible and to be transparent about updates to the forecast.

As the front comes through, storms will be rather isolated initially. Not everyone will see rain with this system, but as we get later in the evening, we will likely notice coverage becoming a bit more widespread. Timing for storms to start looks like 3-5 p.m. time frame, but we could still see activity in the area through late evening as it moves east.

Gusty winds and hail are the two main concerns. If you have outdoor evening plans, please just make sure you have a way to receive weather warnings and keep an eye on radar. Some communities will have to get driven inside for a short time to let storms pass.

Lower-to-mid 80s are expected Saturday afternoon, with upper 70s on Sunday thanks to the front passing. Sunday looks mostly dry, with a cooler pattern all next week.

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