Back to summer setup & mark your calendars

We are experiencing one of the coolest starts to August in years, and I know we aren't very far into the month, but this is remarkable. It's one thing to have highs in the 80s, but it's another to have low humidity and overnight temperatures down in the 50s. Those combinations are very hard to come by in August, but it has made for an interesting start to the month. In fact, we are experiencing one of the coolest starts to August in over 15 years. The average temperature in Wichita is 73°

This is why we've been so cool:

The upper high pressure has been parked over the desert Southwest. It's been slowing the monsoon moisture a bit, but we've been benefiting from having the upper level winds come out of the northwest. That's driving the cooler weather down into our area and allowing for temperatures to be well below normal for early August. One the east side of this big batch of cooler weather, that's where the tropical storm (Isaias) was scooped up and pushed farther north.

 

Here's what comes next:

We are moving toward a period that will likely be hot and humid without big, widespread rains for our area. The upper high pressure is moving into Texas and we will be on the northern fringe of it, so we are guaranteed to have some much warmer weather down the stretch. 

However - because we are NOT right under the "high" itself, we aren't likely to have a major heat wave with a bunch of 100s. Here is the temperature outlook for the next 7-14 days:

Mark your calendars for the Perseid meteor shower - next week:

We will still have some moonlight that might wash out some of the faint meteors, but the viewing should still be good. This tends to be one of the better meteor showers during the year, so try and find some time to get away from city lights and enjoy. I don't think the weather will be a big problem next week (in terms of thunderstorms getting in the way)