4:20pm Saturday Severe Thunderstorm Update

At this point, I see no need to revise the forecast I posted at 10:30 this morning. 

Here are some safety recommendations for the damaging winds that are looking increasingly likely in northeast Kansas and adjacent portions of Missouri (including KC Metro).

• The biggest risk is power failures. So, fully charge your cell phone and laptop before 9pm and then disconnect them. That way, if you should be without power in the morning, you have plenty of power in those devices. You want to disconnect them by 9pm (in the "G[ust] 70 mph" area) because power surges sometimes occur with lightning and high winds.
• Put your car in the garage or under the carport. 
• Bring in lawn furniture or other items that could blow about.
• If you have an electric car, charge it late this afternoon or early this evening then disconnect it from the charger. 

If anyone is interested, here is my surface plot from 3pm.

Note: my surface charts use data from mesonetworks and weather satellites, 

some of which is not shown here.

I wish to direct your attention to the small feature (brown dashed) from the southern low to near Salina and into the Flint Hills. Even though it is a small feature, thunderstorms are now developing near it. I point this out to young meteorologists who, sometimes, are not given enough instruction on plotting surface weather maps in college.

The 4:14pm radar shows the first thunderstorm developing on schedule in southwest Kansas. 

I'll have one more update this evening.

For more frequent updates, please follow me on Twitter @usweatherexpert.