A Wintry Weekend Ahead

I hope you are excited about the weekend. I finally had a chance to hold my new nephew yesterday. Wade Leland Janssen is doing very good and I hope to have a few more pictures soon.

In the meantime, the storm that is coming for the weekend still poses an icy threat to the area. The most significant icing will mostly likely occur across the northern part of Kansas, but even there, temperatures are expected to climb above freezing by late Saturday afternoon, so melting should get underway before the end of the day.

Be sure to watch over the weekend for more information as we track the storm.
Have a great Friday.

School Talk & More

I apologize but I fell behind in my blogging this week. The winner to our snowfall contest finally came forward. Congratulations to Mack Hibbard from Harper for winning. He is getting a weather umbrella, a KWCH hat, t-shirt, and a few other items. I'll see about another contest in the spring months. Maybe I'll have you guess the first day that Kansas doesn't see a wind gust over 15 mph (I'm just kidding on that one).

I visited Eisenhower Elementary School Wednesday afternoon in McPherson. As always, we had a great time and the kids were very intelligent. I have a picture of blowing dust from NW Kansas taken a few years ago, and most of the time, the kids can't figure out what it is. Today, within about 10 seconds, someone guessed it correctly, so way to go guys. We covered weather balloons, cold and warm fronts, and of course, the cloud-in-a bottle trick. The students were very well behaved.

A weekend storm is still in the works for our area.

The computer models are beginning to agree that we will get some precipitation this weekend, but we are not 100% sure what type of precipitation it will turn out to be. It looks way to warm for snow, but rain, freezing rain, and sleet all look possible at some point. I'll be in this weekend to watch the storm and hopefully it won't be a major event. Ice is never a good thing!

We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Mack for winning the snowfall prediction contest. His guess was November 26th, so he is the closest to the actual date and is the winner. Wichita had 2.5 inches through 6 a.m. this morning, so the contest is over and we will get a prize out to you. Mack, please email me at rjanssen@kwch.com so I can get your mailing address and get a prize out to you. The snow that fell marks the end of a month long dry stretch here in Kansas. Even if you hate snow, isn't it nice to get some moisture?

Did you have a nice Thanksgiving? Millie and I are still recovering from Turkey hangover, but we still found the energy to play Clark Griswold (you know, Christmas Vacation and hanging the lights) on Friday.

This was a really busy week with all of the weather changes. We started the week off with record high temperatures and end it with snow. This is why Kansas weather is so interesting and even more the reason why I love this time of the year. There are more storms coming this way in the next week, so stay tuned for updates on whether it will be more snow or rain. Either way, we will take whatever moisture we can get our hands on.

The Trying Tommies 4-H Club from Ellsworth county paid a visit to the station on Wednesday. We had a great time touring the station and from what I could tell, they enjoyed watching the newscast live in the studio. Several pictures were taken, but here are just a few of them. Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Thanksgiving Thoughts

Are you ready for Thanksgiving? I am working this year, but will be spending some time with family and close friends when I can on Thursday. I like to think of Thanksgiving as National Stretch Pants Day because you start eating and keep eating until you find yourself needing a little extra room for your stomach to grow. If my suit looks a little tight Thursday night, you'll know what happened.

We knew it was coming and the cold weather has decided to come back to Kansas. Highs in the 40s for this time in November is below normal and it's quite a shock for most of us because we've been accustomed to the 70s. The cold weather isn't going anywhere soon. In fact, we might even get a little snow late in the week or early in the weekend. When the cold front came through Tuesday afternoon, it signaled the start of an active weather pattern that may last for a few weeks. There could be several storm systems passing through our area in the next several days, and hopefully, we will get some kind of moisture before the active pattern ends.

Thanks for calling the travel phone bank Tuesday afternoon. We had about 200 calls from 5-7 with people looking for forecast details. To the caller who asked about Bangkok, sorry I wasn't able to provide you with the weather conditions you were looking for.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

A New Addition

Every once in a while, I like to keep you updated on the happenings in my family. Just recently, I became an uncle with the arrival of Wade Leland Janssen. He was born on Friday in Salina, so a big congrats to my older brother and his wife. I was hoping to get a picture holding the baby, but Wade was needing some extra attention in the nursery, so hopefully soon I'll get a picture with the new family member. We are all excited, except that I feel a little bit older now.

Thanks to everyone for submitting guesses on the first one inch of snow. Any guesses received after Sunday (Nov. 18) will be thrown out. As soon as it happens, I'll be announcing the winner on here and we will get a prize out to the lucky person.

The changes in the weather this week will be drastic, but it is only because we have been so warm lately. Highs in the 40s isn't that unusual for this time in November, but we haven't had any really cold weather this fall. We are still waiting for the storm to develop, and as soon as it does, we will have a better idea on who will get snow and who will get rain. The moisture will be nice (if it actually materializes) Have a great Sunday!

Keep the Predictions Coming

If you would like to submit a guess as to when Wichita will get its first 1 inch of snow, please submit it before Sunday. Just pick a date, and time (in case two people pick the same date) and as soon as it happens, I'll see about getting a prize out to the winner. We will use Mid-Continent Airport as the official reading.


The weather pattern is about to change next week. We've been talking about the possibility of a significant storm before Thanksgiving, and it still looks on track. We are not sure yet as to if it will be snow, rain, or none of the above, but one thing is looking more and more certain, it will turn cold toward the end of next week. So, be prepared to stay indoors for Thanksgiving this year because if the models are correct (and sometimes they are), we could be looking at highs in the 30s to near 40 degrees by the second part of next week. I've posted a snapshot of the jet stream for 6 p.m. Tuesday. You can see the huge buckle developing to our west, and this is what we will watch closely next week. We have to be careful about the predictions we make this far in advance, but with so many people expected to travel next week, we want you to have an early heads up. That's the benefit of being a KWCH blogger!

Early Thanksgiving Prediction

When do you think we will get our first 1 inch of snow here in Wichita? Okay, so if you are the closest to the correct date and time, maybe I can come up with a prize for the winner. But you'll need to post your answer on here within the next 7 days. The official reading will come from Mid-Continent Airport, so make sure you are guessing for southcentral Kansas and please pick just one date.

We have a couple of forecasting models here in the office that have predictions that go out about 15 days. I've been watching them over the last week or so, and they seem to be hinting at a pretty good storm developing just after Thanksgiving, perhaps as early as the Saturday after Thanksgiving. I'm not really sure if it is rain or snow yet, but it looks like our weather pattern will turn more active around Thanksgiving. This should lead to more low pressure systems coming out of the west, with more opportunities for moisture and there will be colder air creeping in from the north too.

Just a reminder, our Storm Team 12 Travel Phone Bank is coming up next Tuesday from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. You will be able to call in and get a forecast for your Thanksgiving travel destination.

Here is some more fall color that my mom has decided to share with you . The picture was taken just outside of Geneseo in my old stomping grounds.

Awesome Autumn Color

Several things have to come together just right for us to maximize our fall color potential. We've been pretty lucky this year in that we've had the rain when we needed it most and the temperatures haven't been too out of the ordinary. Just look around at the trees in the parks, yards, even the trees in the pastures have some color in them at this time of the year. It is just another reason why this is my favorite time of the year. The wind blows all the time here in Kansas, and usually it forces the trees to drop their leaves prematurely before we really get to enjoy the color. At any rate, we still have a few more weeks before all of the trees will be bare and then, we head into winter when everything is brown and dormant.

Our weather pattern should begin to change this weekend. The last measurable rainfall in Wichita was back on October 22nd with .24" recorded out at Mid-Continent Airport. It has been even longer in other parts of Kansas, so we could use the moisture going into the winter months. The next chance for moisture comes on Monday and Tuesday with a low pressure system arriving from the west. I'll be back on Saturday to update you on anymore changes that will be coming this way.

An Early Monday... Helping Others

I had an early wake up call on Monday, helping KPTS raise money for the kids programming that runs on their station. I wasn't sure how many people would be watching at 7 a.m. in the morning, but surprisingly, we had several phone calls come in with people pledging money. The highlight of the day, other than being able to wake up at 5:30, was BubbleMan (aka Ron Tibbetts) creating a 6 foot bubble that could go all the way around me. He has a great job and is quick to point that out to anyone. I was amazed at how much dish soap he goes through in a year. It's more than I'll use in my entire lifetime, unless my dishwasher decides to go on strike.

The fall foliage looks pretty good around the area. If you have some good pictures of the leaves and the fall color, send them to me at rjanssen@kwch.com and I'll try and post some of them later this week. The wind has finally died down and we have a couple of cold nights ahead. Our weather looks quiet for the rest of the week, but we FINALLY start to see signs of change next week. It should get interesting in the next 8-10 days (at least I'm hoping).

Time for a Change in Weather

Like many of you, it will take a week or two to fully adjust to the time change. If they did away with the time change, would you be upset? Have you ever forgotten about the time change and been early/late Sunday morning?

I'm really hoping the weather pattern will change soon. We haven't had any moisture now in over two weeks, and the chance for measurable rainfall this week looks minimal. Without going into great detail, the jet stream is coming straight out of the northwest, which is preventing any Gulf of Mexico moisture from getting this far north. It essentially means we will be dry for at least another 7-8 days, then maybe we will see a change. The temperature ups and downs will definitely continue. In fact, Tuesday should end up being some of the coolest air that we've had so far this fall. We have definitely had a great stretch of fall weather. What will the winter be like? I'll shed some light on this in another blog entry. Thanks again for checking out the blog section of KWCH.com!