2022 in review - January outlook

Another year coming to a close and I'm guessing some of you are ready for some different weather. This year has been marked by terrible (and what feels like never ending) drought, major heat waves, and the extreme fire danger, and the tornado on April 29 (what would be known as the Andover tornado). 

Since drought was such a big topic, here's how the year started off - first map released on January 4th:

Over 70% of the state was in some degree of drought, with about 52% in moderate drought. 

The last map released on Thursday (Dec. 29) was showing 100% in drought, with 37% at the highest classification (exceptional)

Some of the main reporting stations we track looked like this for 2022:

Dodge City: (how about wrapping up the year over 10 inches below average on rain) and 33 days this summer with 100° temperatures

Goodland: (below average by about 8 inches for moisture - there were 17 days of 100° temps)

Wichita: (rainfall fell short of average and there were 27 days of 100°)

Salina: (also below average on rain and had 22 days of 100°)

Andover tornado: rated EF-3 - not necessarily your classic radar signature. It was a day well forecast to have some potential of tornadoes, but it took all afternoon and evening before this cell, that went right over Wichita, dropped the tornado just south of Andover. Since the storm didn't have much rain wrapped around it, it was quite visible from 5-10 miles away. 

January outlook:

The month is going to start warm, and even though our weather pattern will likely remain active, the chances of big snows in Kansas for the first half of the month are low. We are in the warmer phases of the weather setup for now. Average highs are in the low 40s for early January, and the next few weeks should mainly be 40s and 50s. 

One models shows the cold across the west, northern and central Plains. I think it has the right idea for mid to late January, but it probably isn't cold enough. 

The other model, shown below, also indicates cold across the west and central US. In the most recent cases of the bitter cold that hit (just prior to Christmas), none of the data did a very good job of handling the extreme temperatures. Let's see if this lines up for later in the month. Until then, it should continue to be near or above avearge.

And January isn't a very wet month at all. In fact, for much of the state it tends to be the driest month of the year. Having "above" average moisture won't mean much, but some of the active weather early in January may get us close to our typical monthly precip totals. I don't expect January will have heavy snow amounts for Kansas. 

Happy New Year. I look forward to covering another year of weather with you both here and on KWCH.