Hot week ahead - a few rounds of storms

Welcome to Monday everyone. We are officially just over one week into summer and we've had quite a few hot days already, but nothing that is really out of the ordinary. Normal highs are in the low 90s, and they will jump up to about 93 from mid July to the end of the month. At the end of July, our normal high temperatures will start coming back down (albeit slowly and still in the 90s)

satellite image of the fires - California (click to make image larger)

This week, the weather pattern will be characterized by a HUGE high pressure across the western US. Wildfire season is well underway and some of the fires are large enough to be seen from space. The satellite image above was captured on June 20th of the Lake Fire in San Bernardino. The heat across the west will be relentless and the elements will continue to challenge the firefighters.

I don't think we will see that many storms this week in Kansas. The storm track is coming down over our area, which will likely keep a major heat wave from forming in our area. But the higher chances for rain will be just east of us. Storms that form in the northern Plains will slide to the southeast and just clip areas east of the Flint Hills. Some of the best storm chances we may have in the next 5-7 days will be Thursday evening-Friday. We could very well have another front coming through at that time, which will help get a round of storms going that will slide southeast. The wheat harvest has ended for some farmers in south central and eastern Kansas, but it's still going for many in the west.

There are many areas that have already hit the century mark this summer. We will be counting the days as we head into July. Still plenty of opportunities to get that hot!