An unusual stretch of weather

Hope you are having a great start to the new year. You might say we are catching a bit of luck when you see what is taking place to our south in Oklahoma and Texas. A storm that is missing us only by about 100 miles. Ice, snow, and rain is really creating a mess and it's a storm that will be around at least until Friday morning.

OU Campus

South OKC

Pattern Shift:
So the next 8-9 days look very mild across the Plains. In the last blog update we talked about it being cold in January and there are still so many signs of that coming our way, but you wouldn't expect that based off the forecast for mainly 50s and 60s coming up.

Look at the setup this weekend. Kansas will solidly be under a high pressure ridge, which keeps chances for rain and snow away from the Plains.

You will notice a decent amount of rain and snow west of the Rockies on the map shown below (this is for Sunday evening). That messy weather is going to bypass Kansas Sunday night/early Monday. It's a system that isn't organized at all, moving fast, and by the time it finally gets itself together, it will be east of Kansas. The Flint Hills may catch some drizzle early Monday; that will be it.

If you look at the temperatures early next week, all of the Arctic air is lodged up in Canada. Mornings will still be rather chilly but afternoon highs should stay 15° above normal.

COLDER WEATHER RETURNS:
The end of next week (around January 11th) - a stronger front should move through bringing us back to typical January weather. Details to come.