Top four weather events of 2019

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — From start to finish, this year’s weather kept the FOX4 Weather team on their toes. What weather events do you remember most? Here is a breakdown of the Top 4 Weather Events of 2019! #4 Shattering the Water Year record Dangerous drought conditions may have topped the headlines in 2018, but things drastically changed as we closed out that year and headed into 2019. It has been an exceptionally wet year in Kansas City. The Water Year runs from October of the previous year through September of the following year. The previous record water year of 1960-61 saw 57.87″ of rainfall. We officially broke the record on September 8th a little after 3:30 a.m. But the rain gauge continued to fill up through the end of the month, adding over 6″ to the total. We ended up with 64.25″ of rainfall for the water year. Also notable, we will finish the year in the #4 spot for wettest calendar year (Jan.-Dec.) with 53.21″ of total rainfall. #3 Significant Snowfall… Finally! After three seasons of single digit snowfall totals (which has never happened before)… We got hammered this past winter with 29.1″ of snowfall. From blizzard warnings to ice storm warnings. And temperatures that were well below average through March, Winter made a comeback! If you recall the season started early in October of 2018 followed by the Thanksgiving Blizzard. When you look at the months of January and February, we saw 18″ of snowfall combined for those two months alone! #2 Severe Weather Season Fueled by the abundant surface moisture, the 2019 severe weather season was one to remember in Kansas City. For nearly 3 weeks, we had non-stop severe weather chances. On the 8th anniversary of the Joplin tornado, strong tornadoes (EF-3) touched down in Carl Junction and Golden City, located just north of Joplin. And in Jefferson City, an EF-3 tornado touched down with winds of 160 miles per hour, cutting a 33 mile long path. But the most notable was a little closer to home. On May 28th, a mile wide, EF-4 tornado that was on the ground for 32 miles touched down with wind speeds of 170 miles per hour. That tornado impacted those on the Kansas side in Lawrence and devastated Linwood, Kansas. The tornado lifted as it pushed into the north side of the metro area. It recycled and touched back down in Kearney as an EF-2, cutting a 6 miles path with winds of 115 miles per hour. #1 Record Breaking Flooding A snowy Winter and stormy Spring set the stage for some of the worst flooding since 1993. On March 13th, the Missouri River went above flood stage and remained above that for 278 days ending finally on December 10th. I-29 was closed north of St. Joseph into Nebraska for quite some time. We saw records fall along the Missouri River, eclipsing the record crests from 1993 in spots.  Waverly broke the 93 records twice, once in March and then again in June. Record crests were also reached in Napoleon, Parkville, St. Joseph, Rulo and Brownville. Others narrowly missed the 93′ record crests in Leavenworth and Atchison.