A Christmas storm - a few days late

While the travel weather looks good the next few days, we are anticipating a late week storm that could be considered a late Christmas present from Mother Nature. We've been seeing this on the computer models for days, but we haven't been 100% sure on timing and whether or not this would be a rain or snow event.

The active weather today (Tuesday) will be in the southwest part of the country. Every other place in the US should be in good shape. Typically when storms come through the southwest at this time of year, they are a problem for us in Kansas. However, this initial system is one we really need to be that concerned with.

Here's the map for 4 p.m. today:

4 p.m. Christmas Day looks like this:

So rain chances won't be anything to consider through Thursday. Travel weather on Thursday looks just fine for most of our immediate area.

However, later this week as our next big storm rounds through the Four Corners area, the Gulf of Mexico moisture pushes north rather quickly. This is perfect setup for Kansas to get a good soaking. If it were colder, we could have tremendous snows (likely record setting) - but cold air appears to be lacking in a big way.
Just look at Friday afternoon when the rain begins in some areas, much of the state is still looking at 40s and 50s.

Most of the rain will fall Friday night - Saturday mid afternoon -a change to snow should happen in central or western Kansas, but that doesn't take place until the precipitation is already shutting down. So I'm not convinced we will get that much snow out of this storm.

By the time we reach the end of this storm, many areas could be in for 1-2 inches of rain. This will deliver a setback to the ongoing drought, BUT it doesn't end it. That takes repeated rains, something that is extremely hard to come by in wintertime. 

It will be colder though by Sunday and Monday. A return to December weather should take place by Saturday night/Sunday/Monday.