'We are missing data': NWS weather balloon changes scrutinized as tornados hit Midwest [View all]

Source: NBC News

April 16, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT / Updated April 16, 2026, 2:32 PM EDT


A tornado outbreak near Kansas City, Kansas, on Monday night came as a surprise. At least three injuries were reported after at least five tornadoes developed in areas southwest of the city. Several homes were damaged, trees were downed and recreational vehicles were overturned.

But in its Monday afternoon outlook, the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center, which forecasts severe thunderstorms and tornadoes, did not anticipate a tornado threat for the Kansas City area. The disconnect has prompted concerns among some outside meteorologists that ongoing changes to staffing and weather balloon releases at the agency might be leaving forecasters in the dark about threats.

Many forecasting offices in the Great Plains did not launch weather balloons at 7 a.m. Monday, as they have for decades, and instead they released the balloons at noon — a change that several meteorologists think was made because of staffing issues.

“We are missing data at the normal times,” said Chris Vagasky, a meteorologist and research manager at the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet, a statewide network of weather monitoring stations. He added that the staggered balloon launches Monday left a “big area over the southern Plains in the central United States without that weather balloon data, which might have caused the models to not forecast the day’s activity as well as it could have.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/weather/tornadoes/tornadoes-kansas-concerns-changes-national-weather-service-rcna331826