Rain, snow, thunder - this pattern can't be overlooked

There's a great deal of chaos right now in the news with the coronavirus. I'm not going to lie, Wednesday at work had to be one of the strangest days I've ever had during my time at KWCH. It is not very often that we have so much weather coming our way and we have to take a backseat to a virus. It's so strange to see so many things getting cancelled.

Multiple waves of weather coming - A huge low in the western US is going to be extremely slow to move, which puts us in a spot to have a week of cloudy, wet, cool weather.

Round #1 - Friday/Saturday:

This will spread in from the southwest and as it encounters colder air, we are right back to winter. There will be several areas getting a rain/snow mix to start, and then by Saturday morning, it might warm up just enough to force the rain/snow line back north a bit. Most temperatures (even where it snows) should be above freezing, so some of the snow will initially melt and roads likely wet and/or slushy.

Rain and snow continues into Saturday morning, but you will see it taper off by mid-morning from west to east. We WILL still have drizzle in the afternoon, but measurable rains should be over.

Wave #2: Monday - this doesn't look that heavy, but I think there will be some measurable rainfall from it. It's not much of a storm, but rather a weak disturbance that will pass through and stir up some some shower. My expectation is that rainfall will be less than .25" with this chance, and much of the rain will be focused over the eastern half of Kansas.

Wave #3: Wednesday/Thursday - the brunt of the western storm should come through mid-late week. When this happens, we are likely to see another round of some widespread rain (which could be heavy in spots). It's early to say how much rain, but confidence is growing that it could be another inch of moisture.

Adding up all of the rain and melting the snow over the next week, this is probably not good news for parts of Kansas. However, drought in western Kansas will suffer a beating given this kind of pattern.

A return to sunshine SHOULD happen by next Friday. So prepare for a week of cloudy weather. Oh boy!

Trifecta of planets happening next week (if there are ANY breaks in the clouds):

(March 17-19) there will be three planets visible in the early morning sky. It's not very often you get three of them lined up like this and in such close proximity. Jupiter will be the brightest of them all, but you'll still be able to see Saturn and Mars - IF we have any clearing, which isn't that likely.