Two tornado outbreaks, five weeks apart. Warnings failed twice.
Summary
On March 6, 2026, four tornadoes hit southwest Michigan with no tornado watch ever issued -- killing 4 people and injuring more than 20. On April 13, tornadoes struck the Kansas City area after National Weather Service offices skipped their standard 7 a.m. weather balloon launches; a watch went out roughly 30 minutes before the first touchdown. NWS's own spokesperson says forecast quality hasn't suffered. Independent meteorologists, two U.S. senators, and a Kansas congresswoman who says her office went ten months without an answer to an earlier staffing inquiry all disagree.
Michigan: no watch, four deaths, a demand for answers
U.S. Senators Gary Peters and Elissa Slotkin sent NWS Director Ken Graham a formal letter⧉ asking directly whether staffing shortages at Michigan's five NWS forecasting offices contributed to the agency's failure to issue any tornado watch ahead of the March 6 storms. 'Was a lack of staff and/or resources a contributing factor,' the senators asked, 'to NWS's inability to issue a tornado watch alert ahead of the March 6 tornadoes?'
View data as table
| Michigan fatalities (no watch issued) | 4 |
|---|---|
| Michigan injuries (at least) | 20 |
| Kansas City fatalities | 0 |
| Kansas City injuries (at least) | 3 |
Kansas: the agency says nothing changed. Meteorologists disagree.
Asked about the balloon-launch changes, NWS spokesperson Erica Grow Cei said⧉ forecast model performance 'has not been impacted' and 'shows no evidence of degradation.' Independent meteorologists reviewing the same day's data disagreed. Chris Vagasky of the Wisconsin Environmental Mesonet said the staggered launches left 'a big area over the southern Plains ... without that weather balloon data, which might have caused the models to not forecast the day's activity as well as it could have.' Alan Gerard, a former director at 's National Severe Storms Laboratory, said the agency has been 'deferring them to the day shift -- midday -- for when they have more staff,' calling it 'a real-time experiment without any way to evaluate what the impacts of it are.'
View data as table
| Southwest Michigan, March 6 (no watch issued) | 0 |
|---|---|
| Kansas City, April 13 | 30 |
A Kansas congresswoman waited ten months for an answer she never got
Rep. Sharice Davids wrote to⧉ the Commerce Secretary, Administrator, and NWS Director on April 22, demanding a response within 30 days on the balloon launches, the delayed watch, and current staffing vacancies at seven named Kansas forecasting offices. It wasn't her first attempt: she said she'd raised the same staffing concerns roughly a year earlier and 'after ten months, my office has received no response.' A separate, earlier round of the same pattern had already played out once: in June 2025, Davids flagged the Goodland, Kansas forecasting office scaling back staff just before an EF-3 tornado; responded in August 2025 by announcing up to 450 new hires -- a public action, but not a formal written answer to the specific questions she'd asked. 'The fact that Kansans avoided catastrophic loss in this instance does not excuse these breakdowns,' Davids wrote of the April tornadoes. 'It underscores how close we came, and what could happen if these failures continue.'
The takeaway
- No watch, four deaths. Michigan's March 6 tornadoes struck with zero minutes of tornado-watch warning -- NWS never issued one before any of the four touched down.
- A near-miss five weeks later, with a more direct link to staffing. Kansas City's April 13 watch came about 30 minutes before the first tornado, after regional offices skipped their standard morning weather-balloon launch -- a mechanism named meteorologists tied to staffing, though NWS disputes it. Michigan's staffing link remains an open question senators are still asking; NWS hasn't confirmed or denied it.
- The agency's public position and outside experts don't match. NWS says its forecast quality 'shows no evidence of degradation'; three independent meteorologists who reviewed the same data say the missing balloon data likely hurt the forecast.
This piece draws on official congressional oversight letters (Sens. Peters and Slotkin; Rep. Davids) and NBC News's on-record reporting, including NWS's own spokesperson statement. As of April 16, 2026 -- more than a month after the senators' letter -- an NWS spokesperson told NBC News the agency had briefed both senators' staff and that a formal written response was 'in process' but not yet delivered; this piece cannot confirm what, if anything, NWS has said publicly since that date. Whether staffing caused the Michigan watch failure specifically remains an open question the senators posed to NWS, not a finding either side has confirmed; the Kansas case has more direct evidence (named meteorologists pointing to skipped balloon launches) but is also contested by NWS's own spokesperson.
Sources(4) ▾
- NBC News, 'We are missing data': NWS weather balloon changes scrutinized as tornados hit Midwest (2026-04-16) — NBC News investigative reporting on the April 13, 2026 Kansas City-area tornado outbreak, including on-record statements from an official NWS spokesperson and three independent meteorologists, plus a Kansas City NWS forecaster's own account. Fetched in full via curl with a browser user agent. nbcnews.com · original document
- Office of U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (KS-3), After Kansas Tornadoes, Davids Demands Answers on Weather Service Failures Impacting Public Safety (2026-04-22) — Official congressional press release including the full text of Rep. Davids' letter to the Commerce Secretary, Administrator, and NWS Director. Fetched in full via curl with a browser user agent. davids.house.gov · original document
- Office of U.S. Representative Sharice Davids (KS-3), Following Davids' Push, Trump Administration to Hire Weather Service Staff, Fill Public Safety Gaps (2025-08-07) — Earlier congressional press release documenting a prior round of the same pattern: a June 2025 staffing complaint from Davids followed by 's August 2025 announcement of up to 450 new hires. Fetched in full via curl with a browser user agent. davids.house.gov · original document
- Office of U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI), Peters and Slotkin Press National Weather Service for Answers on Lack of Tornado Watch Alert for Southwest Michigan Tornadoes (2026-03-16) — Official Senate press release documenting the March 6, 2026 southwest Michigan tornado outbreak and the senators' formal oversight letter to NWS Director Ken Graham. Fetched in full via curl with a browser user agent. peters.senate.gov · original document
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Twice in five weeks this spring, the National Weather Service's tornado warnings failed to give residents the advance notice the system is designed to provide. On March 6, 2026, four tornadoes tore through southwest Michigan -- the strongest, at 160 mph, the fastest to hit the state in nearly 50 years -- and NWS never issued a tornado watch⧉ before any of them touched down. Four people died; more than 20 were injured. On April 13, five tornadoes hit the Kansas City area after many regional NWS offices skipped their standard 7 a.m. weather balloon launches⧉, releasing them at noon instead; a tornado watch went out about 30 minutes before the first touchdown. No one died, but at least 3 people were injured.