Monday, February 21, 2022

Major cold blast; nearby ice storm, and snow

Our last full week of February AND last full week of meteorological winter. Spring is in sight, but we have to plow through this week first. And what a week this is going to be with some major whiplash in the temperatures. 

First off, no record highs expected today in Kansas as we would need a closer encounter with 80° and that doesn't seem likely at all. Here are the records:

Almost as impressive as the temperatures Monday afternoon will be the drop felt Tuesday morning. Just look at some of these numbers:

There is some concern of a little freezing drizzle in north central and northeast Kansas very early in the day Tuesday. What does develop will probably move northeast and be gone before noon - no ice accumulations expected:

And then consider the wind chill forecast:

There's also a setup that could lead to some light snow in northwest Kansas and adjacent areas of Colorado and Nebraska Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. No snow accumulations are expected during that time in Kansas.

If we had snow on the ground, we would likely be forecasting some record low temperatures for the region, but that's not something we will probably experience here.

A rather significant ice storm could be in the works for areas just south in Oklahoma - two different waves of moisture coming in from the south will lead to potential power outages and tree damage. Those purple areas are close to 1" of ice:

Since we are still so deep in the cold air Wednesday and Thursday, the moisture that comes at us from the southwest is likely to be all snow for Kansas. The only issue is that because it's so cold, this should be a powdery snow - with very limited moisture content to it. It's still early to say how much, but it's probably not going to be anything to write home about. It would appear to be more along the lines of a 1-2 inch snow, but we should wait a bit longer to really say with any high level of certainty. 

Have a great day and get ready for the COLD!!

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