First Arctic blast - potential storm on the horizon

If you have a great memory, you'll recall the bitter cold and snow that hit Kansas right before Halloween. There was ice and snow on pumpkins and we ended up with our first hard freeze. You could call that "Arctic blast" number one, but since it wasn't officially winter, we will refer to the big drop in temperatures coming midweek as the first real blast. 

If we look to Canada, the Arctic air is really gathering up and it is headed south, but there isn't that much snow on the ground between Kansas and the Canadian border, so that air will warm up as it dives south. The most recent snow cover map (below) shows a big gap over the Dakotas and Nebraska. Even the areas in Kansas that have had snow, much of it has melted. 

Look how different the following maps look and they are separated by just 48 hours. The heart of the cold hits fast (Wednesday)

and 2 days later (on Christmas) we are already warming back to the 50s. 

 

Things are looking interesting for next week (and why shouldn't they be to cap off this unusual year). It looks like we will have a fair amount of cold air hanging around the Plains and that may set us up for some snow chances around Tuesday/Wednesday. Accumulations are possible, so if you are looking at next week for after Christmas travel, heads up.