Snow next week? What?

A fairly broad area of rain (and snow) has just gone south of Kansas and will be something to watch through at least Saturday. This is a fairly SLOW moving system, but not exactly a big winter storms. Temperatures have just been cold enough on the backside to produce some decent (by October standards) snow across Texas, Oklahoma, and southern Colorado.

Just look where we are Saturday. Again, close to some rain, but the leftovers of the system are just east of Kansas. 

The wet weather will likely stretch from OKC all the way to the Great Lakes. Notice there isn't much blue - so the weekend moisture is all rain as temperatures warm up.

Snow chances next week? 
Right now, we are looking at Monday AND Tuesday to have some snow flurries. These are NOT big storms coming from the west, and this is not a situation where the track is going to change the amounts by large amounts. This is setup where the air is just cold enough that we squeeze out some light precipitation and it will be cold enough to fall as snow. So don't expect school delays and road closures. Is anybody really ready for that?
Monday

Tuesday

COLD ALERT - next week!

We've been sounding the alarm on this for several days now that next week looks cold. I don't know if we will have record low temperatures in Kansas, but we might get close if the clouds break up at all. Just look at the cold air connection to the Northwest Territories. That's some pretty cold air for late October, and it's moving south. The air will warm a bit, since there isn't much snow cover north of us just yet, but be prepared for these kinds of low temperatures by the middle of next week:

When will we get rain chances back?

Recently, we've seen a trend toward drier weather (fall has a tendency to do that, given the drop in humidity and colder temperatures). But when should we expect to have a better shot at moisture? It's going to be awhile, and when I say that, it could be another 10-12 days. We need the upper level winds (or jet stream) at roughly 20,000 feet to swing back to the southwest. That's our best chance at getting measurable rain/snow. Here's what one computer model is hinting at toward the first weekend in November. Notice how the upper air winds go more west/southwest. That will help to warm things up, and just might lead to a setup that brings in some rainfall to the area. How far west and how MUCH... stay tuned.