Kansas City3 min read·May 17, 2026
Song of Dust and Water
Saturday's Slight Risk for severe weather became a defining event across the central Plains. A wall of dust collapsed visibility on I-70 in western Kansas while 3 to 9 inches of rain triggered flash flood warnings across the Daviess–Grundy–Mercer–Harrison corridor. By Sunday morning the Thompson River at Trenton was actively flooding and NWS Pleasant Hill projected the Grand River near Sumner to crest at 31.6 feet — moderate-flood territory — by midweek. The gap between the rain ending and the river peaking is exactly where the small-tributary warning system has its blind spots.
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