Cold just keeps on coming! Where's the snow?

Friday is here and we have just over two weeks before the Christmas holiday. It's a very busy time of the year. Nearly every other Christmas song on the radio talks about snow, cold, and dreaming of a White Christmas. We are less than two weeks before the official arrival to winter.

Did you know that our earliest sunset is happening now? Yes... it actually happens before the winter solstice. That's because solar noon (when the sun is directly overhead) doesn't happen exactly at noon. There is a bit of a lag between what happens in space and what we experience here on Earth. The latest sunrise will happen in early January (it will be coming up at 7:45 a.m.)

While we did see some snow this week, it was hardly a storm. The highest snowfall report I saw was 1.7" from Goodland. Some of you were asking me why our snowfall forecast didn't match that of the National Weather Service. Basically, it just comes down to how one meteorologist vs another interprets the data. Just like one doctor might prescribe one medicine while another doctor might suggest something else.

Our average, the 1st measurable snowfall usually comes in the beginning of December. So it's right on schedule for some. The average first 1" of snow usually comes in the middle of December (at least for Wichita).

How much snow cover is there between here and Canada? It's not as much as you might expect, but I think in the next 7 days, we will likely see most areas north of Kansas covered in some amount of snow. Several systems will be tracking across the area, and there is so much Arctic air hanging around. The wind is coming across the North Pole and driving so much of the bitter cold down into the US. It will continue for at least the next few weeks. Tuesday and Wednesday... next week... look like our coldest days

Temperatures this morning

Next Wednesday

I still don't see any big storms headed for Kansas. However, we are going to be stuck in a very cold pattern for the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. So any moisture that develops nearby could be snow. We shall see. Have a great weekend.