December outlook

Our last month in 2019 and it looks to be off to a windy start for Kansas. Saturdays wind gusts were mostly above 45 and in some spots, they were above 60 (which starts to cause power outages and minor tree damage). One of the strongest gusts in Kansas came from Goodland with a top wind speed of 69 mph. That's even on the verge of hurricane force.

What's causing all of wind across the Plains? It's the HUGE low pressure reaching its max strength in Nebraska and the upper Midwest. Some of the systems lately have been referred to as "bomb" cyclones, which simply refer to how fast they strengthen in a 24 hour period of time.

December Temperatures:
December is looking like it will be a milder month (not necessarily all 60s) coming our way, but I don't see Arctic air coming our way anytime soon. It may not come back until the end of the year even. In our winter forecast released over a week ago, we pointed out that January and February should be quite COLD for most of our area, but left December out of that discussion because signs have been pointing to a slightly milder month ahead.

One feature, if you look up in the Gulf of Alaska, we are seeing an area of lower pressures. This should keep most, if not all of the bitter cold, Arctic air from plunging south. When that flips around to high pressure in that region, it WILL turn colder - which will likely happen at the end of December or first of January.

Precipitation in December - not looking very promising (or very heavy)

• I see the first half of the month (like in November) - very dry
• Chances for moisture (both some rain and snow) will return late in the month. Could this mean a white Christmas? We don't know yet, but because we are leaning toward so much warmth in December, it's hard to imagine snow for the holiday. But we can't rule it out this far out.