Kansas City region saw most tornadoes ever in 2026. ‘One after another, after another'
This year’s severe weather season in the Kansas City region is one for the record books. The National Weather Service confirmed that 39 tornadoes have touched down so far in the Pleasant Hill forecast office’s jurisdiction, which includes 37 counties across northern and western Missouri and seven counties in extreme northeastern Kansas. That breaks the previous record of 33 tornadoes set in 1967, according to data dating back to 1951 from the National Severe Weather Archive Display website . The next highest was 31 in both 2003 and 2004. On average, the Kansas City region sees 12 tornadoes a year, based on the data. 2026 tornado season Twelve of this year’s tornadoes touched down in the Kansas City metro area, which includes Leavenworth, Wyandotte, Johnson, and Miami counties in Kansas, and Platte, Clay, Jackson, Cass, and Ray counties in Missouri, said Eric Carothers, a meteorologist with the weather service in Pleasant Hill. The total would be 13 if Lawrence, just outside the forecast office’s jurisdiction, was included. “We just had a very active pattern through the spring, particularly April, May and June,” Carothers said. “We had a very progressive pattern where systems just kept moving through one after another, after
