Thunderstorms give Kansas City one of its wettest days of the year. How much rain fell?

Showers and thunderstorms swept through the Kansas City area Thursday night, producing a spectacular lightning display and drenching the metro with one of the heaviest rainfalls of the year.

Kansas City’s Northland saw the heaviest rains, with 1.73 inches falling along Missouri 152 highway at Upper Shoal Creek, according to rainfall data StormWatch.com, a collection of rain gauges across the Kansas City metro.

Areas in Johnson County and south of the Missouri River saw considerably less rainfall.

Officially, 1.27 inches of rain fell in Kansas City on Thursday, according to climate data.

Kansas City had more rain on Thursday than in the past 34 days combined (1.08 inches), the National Weather Service said on X, formerly Twitter.

“It was the wettest day since 6/26 (June 26) when we had 1.70 inches,” the weather service said. Thursday “was also the 7th wettest day of 2024 . . . the wettest being 4/18 (April 18) when we received 1.79 inches.”

Here’s a map of rainfall totals across the Kansas City metro area, according to data from StormWatch.com.

Sunny weekend in KC’s forecast

The cold front that brought the overnight storms has moved out of the area, according to the weather service, bringing temperatures to near normal for late October.

“A fine, fantastic, fall weekend awaits us!” the weather service said. Dry, quiet weather and sunny skies are expected.

The weather service said Friday’s temperatures will be in the lower 60s to near 70 and Saturday’s in the upper 50s to mid-60s. Sunday will be warmer, with temperatures climbing into the 70s.

Typically, Kansas City sees temperatures around 63 degrees this time of year.

The unusually warm weather continues into next week, with temperatures climbing into the 80s on Monday and Tuesday.

‘Significant severe weather event’

Kansas City’s next best chance for rain is Wednesday night when there is a 40% to 50% chance of storms across the area.

“As of right now, no severe weather is expected due to a lack of instability,” the weather service said in its forecast discussion.

However, if the environment sees more instability, there is a potential for a “significant severe weather event.”

“If storms are able to develop, damaging winds will likely be the main hazard,” the weather service said. “We will continue to monitor the trends of these conditions with future (forecast) model runs.”

The weather service said to expect another cooling trend for the start of next weekend.