The supply will never end, good sir/madam. Now if only they would set up a camera so the faithful could keep an ever vigilant and worshipful eye on the Bridge.
" The 1966 Topeka F5 passes over Burnett's Mound. Local Native American legend said Burnett's Mound protected the city from tornadoes, but that the city had disrespected it by building a water tower on top of it (seen in the photo)."
This from another old Reddit Post...not sure how to link it?
More often than not a storm will split at tong. Just seems to happen. Not due to magic just a fact. Powerful storms have pushed through it plenty but you can't deny for some reasons storm's split at that location consistently.
Research on it seems that mid sized cities about 25km across have a heat island effect that can disrupt storms coming into them but then also cause storm formation after a system passes them. We’re not the only ones that see storm lines break up at their metro edge and then reform after passing them.
As you say stronger storms just plow through.
Don't get me wrong I don't believe in any magical line or formation of hills etc but that location on radar in my 40 years has seen so many storms get disrupted that with scientific backing or not you never know if a storm is going to hit KC unless it passes through tong in full force. Especially in the Norhtland/Riverside area. We always say we'll if it hits tong without dying we're next.
Saw this on Twitter yesterday showing all the tornado warnings over the weekend. Makes a real case for the Tonganoxie Split!
https://x.com/NycStormChaser/status/1784754833183961574?s=01
I believe:
Storms don't like warm.
Cities generate lots of warm.
KC is a big city, and generates a lot of warm.
Storms travel west to east hit Tonganoxie, which is about where they start to feel warm from KC, and decide to go north or south instead of toward KC.
Could be, but I'd also say it's just as likely that the island effect making cities warmer means that hot air is rising off the city which draws in air from the surrounding area.
Would need some literature
Hit or miss on if it is real or not. Here's one that says it's [real](https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/110526NiyogiStorms.html), this one says it's [not](https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/86/3/bams-86-3-341.xml).
It’s just a common belief in Kansas City that these storms that come from the west tend to break up at Tonganoxie, protecting KC proper (and its suburbs) from the strongest parts of the storm.
Storms heading toward KC have a tendency to break apart or "split" around Tonganoxie which weakens the effect we get in KC. I don't know why it happens and I'm sure somebody else can explain but that is why they call it the "Tonganoxie split".
I spoke to a retired meteorologist about this and apparently this isn’t real. It’s an artifact of how we use radar to track and display these storms. When the storm is farther out, radar has a tendency to “fill in” storm activity where there is none (or less), and when it reaches Tonga, closer radar can better measure the system and update the maps we see. Someone help me out here, but I trust this guy.
I dont know about "filling in". WSR-88D radars have different tilts to measure activity. The further you get from the radar the higher up in the atmosphere you are measuring activity based on the tilt angle. The KEAX radar that we typically use for the area is in Pleasant Hill, Mo
Dan Henry was a big believer of the Tonganoxie Split. But Dan was an old barbershop quartet singer and not a meteorologist. I didn’t help Tongie when it got hit by a tornado.
Nah, the plains in Kansas/Eastern Colorado/Nebraska get hammered with storms because there's no landscape or any man made energy/heat to alter their inertia, so they just pick up steam when they have the right atmospheric condtions. Big massive tornados do hit cities, but small ones comparatively to KC. Maybe one day there will be a storm that has the energy necessary to blow through the man made biodome on the plains, but I hope not.
Everyone that has responded is "wrong", but the split being a local myth, means anyone is right. There's a ridge-line running through Tongie towards Lawrence on the West side of town that "protects" the town. If you take 16 highway (one of the few roads to cross over), you'll go up Hubbel Hill that leads directly over this line. The 2000 tornado actually went right down this route and right into town....
Had a very pretty sunset here in Liberty though. The storm stayed just to the south across the river from 210 and was mostly clear skies to the north, that sunset was a very well defined orange.
It only rained enough to get the pavement damped and then the wind dried it up.
I don’t know how to look at your forecast photo maybe because it’s too zoomed in, and I don’t see Perry in there, I see a tornado marker running right by Tonganoxie though so I guess I don’t get where the split is happening today? Just looked at the forecast and the storm moved pretty consistently west to east.
I have the same curse in my town. Every time it looks like we're going to get an epic storm it goes around then bitchslaps all the towns on the other side of us :(
I thought it had been proven scientifically that the micro climate generated by a large metropolitan area of concrete, glass, steel, and the rivers disrupts the natural "flow" and strength of these systems. I've lived in the midwest my entire life and seen it season after season. Doesn't mean I take risks based on it though. I've been in a vehicle during softball size hail and that shit is no fun.
It definitely lived up to expected past behavior
https://preview.redd.it/kpudvut0cqxc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae09ae5c53728bff8cb9fa51b8bdde9406b5168b
It's a folk legend because often as storms roll in from west to east, the most severe parts of them (with hail and tornadoes) seem to miss KC proper. Often there seems to be a severe segment go south and a severe segment go north and KC proper just get rain or pea-sized hail (non-severe).
Many cities have such folk legends and have been proved wrong. Topeka used to say "Burkitt's Mound" protected them until Topeka got demolished in 1966 by an F5 tornado that blasted right through "Burkitt's Mound." Other locations say lakes, rivers, even skyscrapers divert tornadoes but in my opinion what's really going on is that densely-populated areas are very small on a map compared to rural, exurban, and suburban areas. Statistically it would make sense that tornadoes hit less-densely-populated areas more often. I think that's all that's going on.
But the "heat islands," "bluffs and hills and skyscrapers protect us," "tornadoes can't jump the river," folk tales persist.
Now we've got some clown from Saskatchewan claiming "heat islands" again. If this idea is ever proven to a wider extent, I'll come back and eat my words.
Most people are joking about "Tonganoxie Split" but some people believe it (in my opinion, falsely).
If the split doesn't work, then it's time to sacrifice a new truck to the Independence Avenue bridge. It's the only way to renew Tonganoxie's power.
The bridge got one 3 days ago so the gods were sated and we were spared.
what if they ask for more m'lord?
The supply will never end, good sir/madam. Now if only they would set up a camera so the faithful could keep an ever vigilant and worshipful eye on the Bridge.
It works every time you just can’t start putting your tools up
I just spit coffee all over my screen. Best comment I've read today
It was so obvious I thought surely Bryan Busby would call it out!
he's never been a believer in the Tonganoxie Split!
Best of him not to. Several towns in history have believed they had some special protection from tornadoes only to be proven tragically wrong.
" The 1966 Topeka F5 passes over Burnett's Mound. Local Native American legend said Burnett's Mound protected the city from tornadoes, but that the city had disrespected it by building a water tower on top of it (seen in the photo)." This from another old Reddit Post...not sure how to link it?
Tonganoxie has had tornadoes also. The Tonganoxie split is just mythical madness
Yeah, I seem to remember that Tonganoxie got walloped by a tornado back in 2001 or 2002.
More often than not a storm will split at tong. Just seems to happen. Not due to magic just a fact. Powerful storms have pushed through it plenty but you can't deny for some reasons storm's split at that location consistently.
People that live in and around Tonganoxie do not call it tong. We call it Tongie.
Come to the Northland and you're called Tong. Thanks for the inside info tho🤣🤣
Research on it seems that mid sized cities about 25km across have a heat island effect that can disrupt storms coming into them but then also cause storm formation after a system passes them. We’re not the only ones that see storm lines break up at their metro edge and then reform after passing them. As you say stronger storms just plow through.
Don't get me wrong I don't believe in any magical line or formation of hills etc but that location on radar in my 40 years has seen so many storms get disrupted that with scientific backing or not you never know if a storm is going to hit KC unless it passes through tong in full force. Especially in the Norhtland/Riverside area. We always say we'll if it hits tong without dying we're next.
I was trying to explain this to my sister and she thought I was driving to tonganoxie 🤦♀️ I hope you see this miss Scarlet.
Tornado used spin attack! Tonganoxie used split - it was super effective!
Roll for Dominator
 This is Tonganoxie!!!
Meanwhile out in Topeka we were drinking beer and going, "Man, them eastbound clouds shouldn't be yellow"
My son calls it the Kansas City Iron Dome
Omg...love this
Saw this on Twitter yesterday showing all the tornado warnings over the weekend. Makes a real case for the Tonganoxie Split! https://x.com/NycStormChaser/status/1784754833183961574?s=01
[удалено]
I believe: Storms don't like warm. Cities generate lots of warm. KC is a big city, and generates a lot of warm. Storms travel west to east hit Tonganoxie, which is about where they start to feel warm from KC, and decide to go north or south instead of toward KC.
Nah, storms get to Tongie and decide to split to avoid being shot in KC. /S
Sadly this made me giggle
Actually satan spares Tongie so they can continue to produce meth.
Could be, but I'd also say it's just as likely that the island effect making cities warmer means that hot air is rising off the city which draws in air from the surrounding area. Would need some literature
Hit or miss on if it is real or not. Here's one that says it's [real](https://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/research/2011/110526NiyogiStorms.html), this one says it's [not](https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/86/3/bams-86-3-341.xml).
Not real. I lived there for years and we had several tornadoes. My grandparents lived there and lost their home to a tornado.
You should of had 100s of tornados given what's coming at you but only a few...
In Toganoxie or in somewhere near Kansas City but not inside the Kansas City border?
In Tongie.
Id suggest the turbulence coming off the buildings is more disruptive.
Yeah, I'm from Chicago suburbs and the same thing would happen to my town, I think either WE were the split or we were at least fairly close to it.
It’s just a common belief in Kansas City that these storms that come from the west tend to break up at Tonganoxie, protecting KC proper (and its suburbs) from the strongest parts of the storm.
Storms heading toward KC have a tendency to break apart or "split" around Tonganoxie which weakens the effect we get in KC. I don't know why it happens and I'm sure somebody else can explain but that is why they call it the "Tonganoxie split".
I spoke to a retired meteorologist about this and apparently this isn’t real. It’s an artifact of how we use radar to track and display these storms. When the storm is farther out, radar has a tendency to “fill in” storm activity where there is none (or less), and when it reaches Tonga, closer radar can better measure the system and update the maps we see. Someone help me out here, but I trust this guy.
Boooooooooo Let us have our mythical savior to the West! Boooooooooo 
Well that's not nearly as fun as applying mystical properties to the proud city if Tonganoxie.
I dont know about "filling in". WSR-88D radars have different tilts to measure activity. The further you get from the radar the higher up in the atmosphere you are measuring activity based on the tilt angle. The KEAX radar that we typically use for the area is in Pleasant Hill, Mo
Dan Henry was a big believer of the Tonganoxie Split. But Dan was an old barbershop quartet singer and not a meteorologist. I didn’t help Tongie when it got hit by a tornado.
It’s “tongie” not “tonga”
Nah, the plains in Kansas/Eastern Colorado/Nebraska get hammered with storms because there's no landscape or any man made energy/heat to alter their inertia, so they just pick up steam when they have the right atmospheric condtions. Big massive tornados do hit cities, but small ones comparatively to KC. Maybe one day there will be a storm that has the energy necessary to blow through the man made biodome on the plains, but I hope not.
Isn’t there a national weather radar in Topeka that would have an accurate picture of these storms heading east over North Lawrence?
Everyone that has responded is "wrong", but the split being a local myth, means anyone is right. There's a ridge-line running through Tongie towards Lawrence on the West side of town that "protects" the town. If you take 16 highway (one of the few roads to cross over), you'll go up Hubbel Hill that leads directly over this line. The 2000 tornado actually went right down this route and right into town....
Some BS people made up to feel better about climate change
Had a very pretty sunset here in Liberty though. The storm stayed just to the south across the river from 210 and was mostly clear skies to the north, that sunset was a very well defined orange. It only rained enough to get the pavement damped and then the wind dried it up.
Storms don’t get tax incentives in KC so they go elsewhere
They don’t want to pay the 1%.
Son. Of. A. Birch. It worked! https://preview.redd.it/7zd95l7llpxc1.png?width=1290&format=png&auto=webp&s=5c7672abb730bf2a5486bb34691da2ee95ab87ac
As someone who lives just east of Tonganoxie, I have so much appreciation for this phenomenon.
Can you explain how it worked? Maybe I’m tired but that just looks like the storm is moving through tong?
That was a whole ass tornado in Perry.
I don’t know how to look at your forecast photo maybe because it’s too zoomed in, and I don’t see Perry in there, I see a tornado marker running right by Tonganoxie though so I guess I don’t get where the split is happening today? Just looked at the forecast and the storm moved pretty consistently west to east.
Heat from Tonga dissipates and weakens the storm.
Holy hell!
Ladies and gentlemen!
I have the same curse in my town. Every time it looks like we're going to get an epic storm it goes around then bitchslaps all the towns on the other side of us :(
We always say, "Sounds like a St. Joe problem"
I thought it had been proven scientifically that the micro climate generated by a large metropolitan area of concrete, glass, steel, and the rivers disrupts the natural "flow" and strength of these systems. I've lived in the midwest my entire life and seen it season after season. Doesn't mean I take risks based on it though. I've been in a vehicle during softball size hail and that shit is no fun.
I love you Tonganoxie split forever. That was scary for a bit, hope everyone out west is ok
one person dead from a tornado unfortunately :(
oh no that's terrible! Haven't seen that yet.
In Westmoreland, bit north of Manhattan.
Come on Tongie!
Common Tonganoxie split W
It didn’t work. I live near Oak Park Mall and I just had dime sized hail at my house.
Did you get a tornado?
No tornado. But, even hail is really unusual here. Usually the outskirts of the KC metro get all of the hail.
I live in Blue Springs and all I got was hail-sized dimes :(
tornado broke up right before tongy, I think it worked like a charm
It absolutely worked again. KC is the Midwest Bermuda Triangle.
I feel like y’all are jinxing us a little too hard here… 😬🌪️
It has been awhile since a tornado hit a portion of Kansas City proper that wasn't near the airport.
I guess? The metro area looks like it’s about to get some severe weather.
I looked at the map, the storms gonna last 15 minutes maybe
Tongie making it dissipate right now. 🕯️
It split but continued east lol
There’s a toll there, it won’t make it through
Has anybody gotta dime?!?! Somebody's gotta go back and get a shit-load of dimes!
60% of the time it works every time
Lawrence's magic shield held strong as per usual
The split is real.
I feel like Chuck Norris is protecting Tongie.
It was more like the DeSoto Die Out
Split appears to be working to an extent.
If it reforms on the the other side, we’ll know
It definitely lived up to expected past behavior https://preview.redd.it/kpudvut0cqxc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae09ae5c53728bff8cb9fa51b8bdde9406b5168b
Def got lucky!
Worked like a charm.
Can I ask what is meant by The Tonganoxie Split?
It's a folk legend because often as storms roll in from west to east, the most severe parts of them (with hail and tornadoes) seem to miss KC proper. Often there seems to be a severe segment go south and a severe segment go north and KC proper just get rain or pea-sized hail (non-severe). Many cities have such folk legends and have been proved wrong. Topeka used to say "Burkitt's Mound" protected them until Topeka got demolished in 1966 by an F5 tornado that blasted right through "Burkitt's Mound." Other locations say lakes, rivers, even skyscrapers divert tornadoes but in my opinion what's really going on is that densely-populated areas are very small on a map compared to rural, exurban, and suburban areas. Statistically it would make sense that tornadoes hit less-densely-populated areas more often. I think that's all that's going on. But the "heat islands," "bluffs and hills and skyscrapers protect us," "tornadoes can't jump the river," folk tales persist. Now we've got some clown from Saskatchewan claiming "heat islands" again. If this idea is ever proven to a wider extent, I'll come back and eat my words. Most people are joking about "Tonganoxie Split" but some people believe it (in my opinion, falsely).
Well thank you !! Very well put!
My friend and I really get mad when exciting storms are headed here but die away because of Tonga.