Sneak peek into September

Our final weekend of August is here and I thought I would share some early thoughts on what lies ahead in September. We are coming off of some rather cool, wet weather for much of the state and I've had more than one person ask if we are headed for early fall. The short answer to that is ... not quite. 

Normal highs going into early September drop into the upper 80s, but if you've lived in Kansas for awhile, you know that we can still have quite a few 90s. It would be very unlikely to see 100s, but that has happened before too. I don't see it getting that hot.

Here's what one piece of data is telling us about the month as a whole:

But remember, that is an average. If we try to break it down into more pieces, I think what you'll find is that the beginning of the month (and maybe all the way through the first two weeks), temperatures will be warm.

However, as we move into the middle of September, and certainly the second half, we have a good chance of seeing temperatures cooling off (and maybe significantly):

Several different computer model runs have been highlighting MUCH cooler air arriving in the last few weeks of the month.

The latest look at precipitation would suggest that near normal rainfall can be expected, and potentially wetter than average across western Kansas.

But I'll warn you, this summer has been REALLY weird with rains. It seems like you either get a ton, or none at all. And the heavier moisture has been mainly staying west (which is why the severe and extreme drought continues across the east). So nailing down precipitation this far out is a challenge, but again, I'm sharing with you what I see in the information right now, and fine tuning as we go.