Thomas Tuchel’s England squad experienced an unsettling start to their stay in Kansas City on Saturday evening after severe weather alerts forced the team to remain inside their hotel. The players had earlier held a community training session at Swope Soccer Village in hot conditions, but the atmosphere changed quickly when a major storm system moved across the region.
Shortly after 8pm local time, the U.S. National Weather Service sent automated warnings to phones in the area, alerting residents to a severe thunderstorm and advising them to take shelter in a sturdy building away from windows. The warning included fears of wind speeds reaching up to 80mph. Around 8:30pm, the situation escalated further when authorities issued a Tornado Watch for Johnson County, Kansas, where the England team hotel is located, while a Tornado Warning was also announced for Jackson County, Missouri, the site of the team’s training ground.
England’s players and staff stayed indoors while the storm intensified across the Kansas City area. Reports indicated that a tornado touched down in Missouri, though it remained outside the immediate vicinity of the city. The weather disruption also affected tournament coverage, with many in the camp following Scotland’s match against Haiti on television before the broadcast on Fox was repeatedly interrupted and eventually replaced by live emergency weather coverage.
The storm brought heavy wind and rain to Kansas City and caused power outages for many residents. Despite the disruption, England’s schedule is expected to continue as planned. The squad is due to return to Swope Soccer Village on Sunday morning for their final preparations before leaving for Dallas, where they are set to meet Croatia on June 17 in their Group L opener.
The incident has also highlighted wider concerns about extreme weather at major football tournaments in North America. Organisers have already faced challenges linked to summer storms, and similar issues affected the Club World Cup last summer, when several matches were delayed or rescheduled because of lightning and severe weather. The current World Cup is already dealing with comparable pressure, with storm warnings in place for two Sunday fixtures: Sweden against Tunisia in Monterrey, Mexico, and Ivory Coast against Ecuador in Philadelphia.
For England, the weather scare was a reminder that conditions off the pitch can be just as disruptive as the action on it, especially in a tournament spread across cities vulnerable to sudden and severe summer storms.
