Snow ends with a big change in the pattern this week

Hope you had a great weekend and the weather this week (although starting out cold and snowy) will be taking a turn for the warmer. It's going to be a remarkable change toward the end of the week.

First - what's left of this current storm will be on the way out of the Plains soon. It will race to the east and cause more travel headaches for the upper Midwest and the east coast. Just look where the messy weather is around 5 p.m. today (Monday):

The snowfall hasn't been enough to end the snow drought that hangs over south central Kansas. Our last 2"+ snow was just back in March, but the last 3"+ snow event was in 2016 for Wichita (and most of us would probably agree that a 3" snow event isn't necessarily a BIG snow). There's still plenty of time to see more snow, but for now, things are beginning to wind down.

How does the weather change later this week?

We are still seeing an active setup for several days to come, but nothing that we need to flag as being a potential problem between now and Christmas. Another system will move toward the central and southern Plains late in the week, but it doesn't look impressive at all. Rain chances will slide southeast of Kansas. The image below shows rain chances into Friday down in Arkansas and Louisiana, but no impact on Kansas.

What happens to our chances of a white Christmas? 

They pretty much go to zero after the snow melts by the end of the week. Even the areas that have 5-9" of snow, Christmas is just too far down the road to try and keep what's on the ground around until the 25th. Just look at the overall temperature setup between now and Christmas Day:

A HUGE ridge of high pressure will push into the area by the weekend. A setup like this could yield some 70 degree weather before we get to Christmas. It's looking VERY warm for December and that's what will keep us from having a nice blanket of snow around here for Santa's arrival.