Nearing conjunction - couple more storms lining up

If you've been looking southwest the last several evenings, you're seeing Venus and Jupiter. You just can't miss them because they are the brightest thing in the evening sky. What will be fun to watch is that they are nearing conjunction on March 1st when they will be just 1/2° apart and lined up horizontally. 

Unlike the green comet just weeks ago, binoculars are not needed. 🙂

Two storms to watch:

The midweek system isn't much of a rain (or snow maker) for Kansas. The amounts will likely be less than .25" for south central and eastern Kansas, so hardly enough to even settle some dust. The system is moving fast and weakening as it moves along. Any wintry weather that falls in northern Kansas also won't be much.

Watching another storm this weekend:

This will bring chances for rain and thunderstorms to the region, and there's some potential for strong storms moving into the evening and overnight. Timing of the storms will get ironed out as we get closer, however, the setup does warrant some attention. 

Maybe the best news of all is that it could be a statewide opportunity for some moisture and not just southeast Kansas. There's a pretty good supply of Gulf of Mexico humidity surging northward into the Plains (shown by dew points in the 50s and 60s). 

Once we get closer, we will start to talk about how much rain, but one would expect that unless you end up under a thunderstorm, the amounts will be less than satisfactory.

Early look at March:

I'm getting lots of questions about March - it's usually our wildcard month. Crazy things seem to happen in March from severe weather outbreaks to blizzards. Most maps and data suggest a slightly colder than average month. This doesn't mean the entire month is cold, but taking into account the lows and highs, it may not be quite as nice and warm as you'd hope. As for moisture, stay tuned.