Coasting into December

I lost track of time last week with Thanksgiving. Everyone is so busy traveling and with the nice weather we've had, most of us have elected to spend more time outside. I know I've been working in the garage a ton lately, thinking spring is just around the corner. My grass is still greener than ever, and we were to have another week of warm weather, I'd probably have to mow it.

Cold weather is coming. Millie is not shedding as much anymore; indicating that it is about to get really cold and she'll need the extra hair. That's her way of predicting weather. I do think the weather is about to get stormy and much colder. I spent almost 45 minutes today just looking at the long range charts to see if I could find any similar ideas on what the pattern will be doing in the coming weeks. Although forecasting snow/rain this far in advance is very difficult, all of the models indicate that it is going to get cold very soon. Our first full week of December could be a very cold week and there is a chance we'll see snow too.

How was your Thanksgiving? I know I had more than my fair share, but I just love turkey and all the extras. Have a great week.

Busy Week

I admit I've fallen behind on blogging recently, but it looks as if so many of you are busy too because I'm not seeing too many comments on the blog lately. Tuesday I was visiting the 4th graders at Explorer Elementary School in Goddard. I even stayed and had a school lunch, but I ate with the teachers. I was just too big to fit at the kids table and they would rather visit with their friends.

This week has been very interesting with the storm that just moved into Missouri. We finally get our first wet snowflakes in central Kansas. Greenwood county ended up with about 5 inches, which was a bit of a surprise for us in the weather center. We thought it may stay just to the north of this area. For those of you in western Kansas, you've already had your first taste of winter. Although the rest of this week looks rather benign, we are still in the middle of an active weather pattern and I think we're going to get another storm just before the Thanksgiving holiday. The models are still coming around to a solution that makes sense, but I'm thinking there will be more snow in Kansas early next week. I'm not so certain where the heavier snow will be, so stay tuned for updates. There are some indications we'll get some much colder air around Thanksgiving too, but again, we are waiting for the models to latch on to this idea.

I'm getting excited for Thanksgiving. Our travel hotline will be open on Monday if you're needing to call and get a forecast for your destination.

Love the Corgis

Last week I ventured back to my old high school and middle school to talk with the kids about opportunity and setting goals. In my mind, I knew it would be a challenge keeping their attention, so I showed some storm pictures and pretended we had an opportunity to go storm chase and what kinds of things we would see. The kids did really well and in our afternoon breakout sessions, I had a chance to visit one on one with kids that had some interest in meteorology. The walls of my high school look so much smaller when I go back to visit. So many memories come rushing back when you travel back to your ol' stomping grounds.

One of the teachers at the high school shared a picture with me. It is a bunch of Corgi puppies lined up on the clothes line. She has them all named too. From the left to the right, they are Felicia Rolfe, Kim Setty, Merril Teller, Brian Heap, me, and then Millie. I wanted to share it with you because they look just like Millie when she was 6 weeks old. You can see why it is easy to get attached to an animal when they have those darn puppy eyes. Anyway, have a great week. Changes are coming in our weather and the more dramatic ones will start to take place next week. Stay tuned.