Record cold today but some milder days are coming

Temperatures for 7 a.m. Tuesday

Record low temperatures are showing up in Kansas and across much of the United States. Take a look at this map. The average temperature is 19.4 degrees across the entire country. I said last night on the 10 p.m. broadcast it looked like more than 90% of the US was below normal, but it's even higher than that. In fact, this is the coldest November morning in 38 years. About 85% of the lower 48 United States experienced below freezing temperatures Tuesday morning. 

We've also had record low temperatures in Wichita, Russell, and Salina. The list may grow, so be sure to catch our newscasts later today, but here are the numbers:

Wichita Record: 12, 1903 (started out with 5 this morning)
Russell: 10, 1951 (started with 5 this morning)
Salina: 13, 1951 (started with 6 this morning)

And after calculating the average temperature for Goodland and Wichita over the last week, it was an unbelievable 16 degrees for Goodland. Wichita wasn't quite as cold, but still had an average temperature of 26. Keep in mind, normal highs are in the mid 50s and normal lows would be upper 20s to near 30. So for the last week, we've been having some high temperatures that were colder than our normal lows. Just amazing!!

We are still tracking a storm system on the way to Kansas for the weekend. IF we get any precipitation at all, it would be rain and not ice, snow or sleet. The latest computer models continue to keep almost all of the measurable rainfall to our south and east, so it's unlikely we will have anything significant here in Kansas, but there is still time for the storm to track a little farther north. We will be watching, but if you are looking ahead to the weekend and plan to travel, there won't be any icy weather to be concerned with. Good news going into the weekend before Thanksgiving.