Kansas City residents may also have to adapt to a climate that's more likely to be warmer, with bigger swings between wet and dry periods.
He suggests that the storm and drought cycle may increase in intensity and that it appears more likely that KC will eclipse its all-time high of 113 degrees, while failing to dip below the all-time low of -20 degrees. And he subtly moves the discussion toward the potential impact of human activity on our environment. This isn't the first time that Lezak has sought to discuss climate change with viewers during Sweeps week. He took a similar stance in February 2011.
Two unpleasant things about summer: sweating through your clothes and paying high utility bills to run the air conditioner. KCTV-5 reports that one Olathe man decided that he didn't want to be sweaty and uncomfortable or pay his utility bill. And when a Westar Energy utility worker dropped by his house to shut the power off, the man allegedly met the worker with a baseball bat.
Police told the TV station that the man didn't swing the bat, but the employee was threatened and left the area to call police. The man told police that he has children and didn't want them to be miserable without A/C. While his reasoning might be noble, brandishing a Louisville Slugger was a dumb idea. He now could face felony charges of aggravated assault. Since the run-in, the man paid his bill. Westar told the channel that it won't shut off anybody's power if the heat index is above 105 or if the low temperature of the day is above 80 degress.
On Monday, it got all the way up to 100 degrees in the late afternoon. And it's going to be miserably hot for a few days. It bears repeating each year when it gets this unbearable that the heat can freaking kill you if you're not careful. Last summer 40 people in Missouri and 62 people in Kansas died from heat-related causes.
Kansas City-area cooling centers are now open. If you don't have air conditioning, go hang out someplace that does. Playing checkers with strangers in an air-conditioned senior center is always preferable to heat stroke. The locations and hours are listed after the jump. Here's a searchable map of all the centers. And check out Jackson County's tips for avoiding heat-related health problems.
Just remember, the Crown Center fountains are no longer a cooling center.
"Have you got one more in you, Busby?" asks Gary Lezak.
"Let's finish what we started, Lezak," Bryan Busby snarls back.
The two top meteorologists in Kansas City have not yet decided to film the sequel to Twister, but the looniness of the weather coverage the past few days suggests that it's not outside the realm of possibility. And if a storm doesn't come soon (media reports are hopefully predicting snow for Saturday), there might not be anything that can cure the "Weather Fever," which has beset this weather-crazy town.
All eight Kansas City-area Salvation Army locations will be serving as cooling centers as long as the city is under an excessive heat warning. The locations are:
They survived the tornado but not the fungus it left behind.
Health officials in Joplin attribute three or four deaths to zygomycosis, a rapidly spreading and often fatal fungal infection. "It's difficult to say if it killed them, but it definitely was a contributing factor," Dr. Uwe Schmidt tells the Springfield News-Leader. Schmidt, an infectious disease specialist, says he has treated five patients and knew of four cases that had been found at another hospital.
One of the less-than-great parts about living in Kansas City is the godawful summer heat. It's muggy, it's miserable and it can be deadly. By early August last year, six Kansas Citians were suspected to have died from heatstroke.
The city has just announced the hours of cooling centers and free swimming at municipal pools. At the risk of sounding like your mother: If you don't have air conditioning, please bookmark this list or print it off and stick it somewhere, because sitting and reading a book or playing Angry Birds on your phone for a couple of hours at a community center could save your life.
Storm chasers Jeff and Kathryn Piotrowski have new video of not only the mile-wide EF5 tornado that ripped through Joplin but also the aftermath (TornadoAlleyVideo via Heycameraman). It's not for the fainthearted.
The death toll in Joplin now stands at 141. Meanwhile, rebuilding Joplin could take up to two years, a University of Missouri-Kansas City professor told KSHB's Sloane Heller.
The Missouri River is set to crest Saturday morning -- check out this awesome graph for the details. And for more info, go here.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill toured the wreckage of Joplin on Tuesday and took these stunning photos. You can see the full gallery with many more pictures on McCaskill's Flickr page (and a few more after the jump).
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