Has spring already sprung?

Forget what the groundhog had to say about the weather forecast. We are headed for a lengthy stretch of milder weather for Kansas and much of the central US. Can you ever remember a winter where we've had such HUGE swings in temperatures (over the course of just 48 hours)?

We actually have a chance to see a few records Friday afternoon. Goodland has to get warmer than 73 for a new record high Friday. That shouldn't be a problem. There will be a lot of 70s across western Kansas heading into the weekend.

RECORD HIGHS FOR SATURDAY

Saturday should see several record highs with temperatures well into the 70s for most of the state. Keep in mind, for early February, normal highs are climbing into the upper 40s (so we will be 25-30 degrees warmer than normal)

The weather pattern will favor mild weather not only this weekend, but the first half of next week (Feb. 9-11) also looks to stay very warm. There's no sign of any Arctic air moving south anytime soon. We will be watching a storm system coming our way for the middle of next week. It's expected to come in from the west and over the Rockies Wednesday. It should bring a chance for some rain showers Wednesday afternoon. Temperatures will likely prevent most of the moisture from falling as snow, but it's something we will take a closer look at when we get closer to the storm.

Next approaching storm system

There's a good chance our temperatures will return to something more February-like by the second half of next week and beyond (but it definitely doesn't look like Arctic air)