Arctic Air WATCH issued

Welcome to our last Wednesday of 2016! We managed to get the stormy weather out of the way over Christmas weekend, so now we get to enjoy some nice weather while many of you are off from work and school.

In the blog tomorrow, I'm going to be showcasing some of the weather highlights from this year as we get ready to ring in 2017. In the meantime, we need to get you ready for another big blast of cold, Arctic air that is ready to move south early next week. It may not be as cold as it was a few weeks ago when we had the record lows, but it's still going to be pretty cold.

Most of the country has had a colder December (compared to average), which is quite the change from the record warmth we were getting in October and November. It's all finally flipped around.

The beginning of the new year will be quite cold. One of the forecast products that we can look at to help identify some of the longer patterns continues to show bitter cold for the beginning of 2017. Just look at how much of the country will be seeing below average temperatures. The freezing line drops well south into Texas by the middle of next week.

It's not clear if we will be getting snow just yet, but we are seeing signs of at least some flurries possible in the middle of next week. I don't see any big winter storms coming through the Plains anytime soon, but what we lack in precipitation will be made up for in cold air.

December is one of our snowiest months (on average) here in Kansas. This month is winding down with no more snow forecast between now and the start of the new year. Average snow amounts are anywhere from 4 to about 6 inches around the state and right now, most places have only had a couple inches.