Winter storm update: All snow for Friday and Saturday, and when melted down, here's the liquid content of it all. It's not going to be the classic 10 inches of snow to 1" of rain - the air is much colder for this go around.
Snowfall numbers coming soon, but here's what we have so far:
And be glad we aren't getting what the southern Plains will get - MAJOR ice!
The cold is finally showing up - now past the halfway mark in meteorological winter. Recent forecasts seem to be getting met with some serious unhappiness, but after so much warm in December and the first half of January, this probably isn't a surprise for some of you.
Here's how January temperatures have looked so far:
January: Much of the country is warmer than average, with some of the warmest from Kansas to the northern Rockies.
Some of the driest areas of Kansas continue to be in the northwest and across southern Kansas, as this winter hasn't been very productive in precipitation. (this is since Dec. 1st)
And snowfall for the winter season looks like this - well below average for most of the region:
Coldest air of the season coming soon - it won't be the last either.
Kansas has primarily been on the western edge of most of the Arctic air this winter, but that probably won't be the case moving through late January. The West coast is back in the drier pattern with a big-time high-pressure ridge favored there. East of that ridge is where the bitter cold will be cutting loose.
Very late in January, expect it to be warming back up though as low pressure pulls away to the east and high pressure starts to expand across the West. This will likely result in dry weather to end January and highs that will trend back above average.
Another blast of Arctic air could be coming in February:
If high pressure pulls back toward Alaska (their weather gets warmer and calmer), that will allow for the bitter cold to surge back south across the middle of the US. This kind of setup would likely be mostly dry, but we'll see how it all comes together.
Have a great day and thanks for reading!
