Winter temperatures coming soon & awesome sunset pictures

This is a week of back-and-forth temperatures. It's almost funny how one day we are up, next day down, and then back up, and that should continue through the weekend. Our second cold front of the week is coming through today (Wednesday) and then another one will come through Friday. And of course there will be some wind to deal with too. Strongest gusts will be Friday and Saturday.

Big surge of cold air early next week!

It still looks like the bottom is going to drop out early next week. This is something we started talking about Monday, and the forecast models still have a huge chunk of Arctic air diving south. It will definitely be cold enough to snow, but there's no big storm system coming through, so it's unlikely we'll have anything to worry about when it comes to difficult travel weather. But high temperatures in the 30s and 40s may be something we deal with for most of the week. Warm clothes will be a necessity next week.

Because of the election coverage, I didn't have a lot of time to showcase the wonderful sunset pictures that came in Tuesday evening. They were just wonderful. So I'm posting as many of them as I can here. Enjoy. Have a great day. And we are always happy to see your window on the weather world. Uploading them on Facebook and Twitter (@KWCHRoss) is the fastest way to get them to us, but stormshots@kwch.com works too.

Brad Swisher

Bruce Overturf - Abilene

Heather Hardesty - Salina

Jeff Templin - Wichita

Shirley Kroeker

Greta Lagerberg - Salina

Brad Klatt - McPherson

Ed ONeal - Dodge City

November stats & HUGE change coming next week

It's Election Day and fortunately, the weather doesn't look too bad for getting out to vote. Sure, it will be a little on the cool side, but at least the wind has gone down for a little while. November is a month where we start getting some pretty significant cold blasts of air coming down from the north, and we will discuss that in just a second. First, look at some stats for this month.

The average high at the beginning of November is around 63, but by the 30th, our normal high is back in the 40s. The days keep getting shorter as we go from 10 hours and 30 minutes of daylight down to just 9 hours and 45 minutes. This is also a month when we typically get some of our first flakes to fly in Kansas. Average November snowfall in our state is roughly 1-3 inches, depending on location of course.

Setup for next Monday. Jet stream diving south and bringing the coldest air of the season

It may not be cold enough for snow this week, but next week is a different story. There is a HUGE surge of cold air that is coming in November 11. Are you ready? Next week (Monday) could start off with highs 75-80 degrees, but it will come crashing down Monday night. Forecast models have been showing for at least two days now that temperatures will drop significantly by Tuesday (Nov. 11) Highs will struggle to get out of the low 40s. And while it may be cold enough for snow, there doesn't appear to be any snow events in the near future. So spend some time digging for the winter clothes, but leave the snow shovel behind for now. It's unlikely that we will be shoveling next week.

Make sure to vote! Have a good day.

More wind and lots of temperature changes coming this week

Welcome to our first week in November. Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween. Rainfall deficits continue to grow for some parts of the state. Wichita is more than 6 inches below on moisture for the year, while Salina is about 2.50 inches below. Goodland has a rainfall deficit of more than 2 inches as well. Moisture would be welcome, but the storm system that is moving through the area today is not going to help out very much. It's not a very strong system and most of the rainfall will end up south in Oklahoma or Arkansas.

If you are tired of the wind, the good news is that we will see a break from it coming up Tuesday. But the rest of the week will likely see more gusty conditions around the area. Some of the strongest wind will likely come Thursday morning and again Friday afternoon.

There will be a bunch of temperature changes this week, but almost none of them will have a chance of producing any moisture. The showers we see today in Kansas (Monday) will not amount to very much (probably not enough to settle the dust in the air) Let's look at the weather pattern and see what's coming up.

First, the system impacting Kansas today is disorganized and the moisture supply is very limited. There is some cooler weather behind it, so we can expect the temperatures to drop about 10 degrees heading into Tuesday.

The middle of the week will see the pattern shift again as the winds are coming from the northwest. This will drive more chilly air down into Kansas by Thursday, but still no hope for moisture.

Early next week, the forecast models are indicating another storm system sliding down the northern Rockies and across the Plains by November 10/11. There will be some much colder air coming with the system, but right now, it's looking less and less likely to produce moisture. If the system were to produce precipitation, there is a chance that could be the first snow for Kansas. The air looks cold enough, but storm systems that come in from the northwest don't normally produce a lot of moisture. It will be one to watch, but right now, it's just a slim chance that it will be anything significant for Kansas. I'll keep you updated through the week. Have a good one.