Dangerous heat today; change tomorrow

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July weekend. The weather was pretty nice, but you may have noticed it heating up a bit yesterday and highs were close to 100 degrees. We will be right back in that ballpark again today just ahead of a cold front that will drop the temperatures about 10-15 degrees heading into Tuesday and Wednesday.

The real question is how far south will the storms get tonight. Right now, it looks like the organized area of storms will definitely stay north of I-70, but there could be one or two storms that develop and hold together just south of the interstate. Storms will track east to start, but may turn a little more southeast around 10 or 11 p.m. tonight. Some hail and gusty winds will be the main threats.

Best chance for any severe storms will be late Monday evening

Tuesday and Wednesday will be cooler days. Highs Tuesday afternoon will come down into the 80s for most of the state. Should turn out to be pretty nice weather actually.

Forecast highs for Tuesday afternoon

Millie and I ended up working a big chunk of the holiday weekend, but did find a little time to slip away to Marion Lake on Saturday. The wind was quite gusty, which made the water rather choppy, but we still managed to get wet and cool off. We had a great time. Millie is a pretty good swimmer, but I'm so protective of her, I never leave her side just in case. I know with her little legs she can't swim as far, so I'm always right there with her.

Headed for Geneseo today & drought update

Geneseo Museum

Yes, Geneseo does have a golf course

As we've been talking about the last few days, I am headed for Geneseo today to feature my hometown. Stories like this are fun and although the town has changed a lot since I was little, there's still so much we can show you about this little community in northern Rice county. The stories will air at 4 p.m. on the KSCW, and then 5 and 6 on KWCH. Already, some of you are sharing your connection to Geneseo with me, and it's really cool. It's amazing to me the connections we make sometimes because of small towns.

Updated drought map for this week

We have had a few phone calls to the weather office asking us why we haven't said on TV that the drought is over. Well, it's not over yet. The new drought maps are out today and they indicate things are much better for Kansas, but the need for rain will continue for awhile yet. Because we had so much dry weather and a lack of rainfall for so long, it is taking a long time to get out. There are no longer any "exceptional" areas of drought in our state, but we still have some "extreme" areas across the west. Remember that slow and steady will always be the best way to break a drought because it gives the sub-soil moisture a change to recharge, and that's what this drought monitor takes into account.

Arthur forecast track into the weekend

Our first hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season is underway. Arthur is working up the east coast, but expected to remain over the water. It will no doubt cause some trouble for flights in and out of the major hubs on the east coast. It will likely remain a Category 1 storm throughout the trip up the east coast. Dangerous rip currents and some coastal flooding is likely to be the biggest issues.

Have a happy 4th of July.

Kansas Proud - my hometown of Geneseo

I'm trading in my forecasting duties on Thursday for a trip back to Geneseo where we will feature my hometown for the day. It's what we are branding as Kansas Proud and taking an opportunity to showcase our hometowns and giving you a look back at our childhood days. Next week, Melissa Scheffler will take you to Newton, Michael Schwanke will be taking you to Colby, and Roger Cornish will have Hutch toward the end of the month.

My church growing up. The United Methodist Church in Geneseo

Just like so many small towns around Kansas, they have a hard time attracting young people to move back to the area. Unless the town is close to a bigger community that has more job opportunities, or it have ties to agriculture, it can be hard to live in these very small towns. I grew up just one mile outside of town and while I didn't spend a lot of my free time in town, I certainly did take part in many activities the city had to offer. As you'll hear in my story tomorrow, the city had a baseball team that I was on for a few years. We also had an annual "Play Day" with a parade and kids' activities in the park. The activities included box turtle races (yes.... you had to find your own turtle for the race), the money dig (tearing through a pile of straw searching for quarters), relays ... Just to name a few.  The adults had mud volleyball. 

The convenient store on Hwy 4 just on the edge of town

There are a lot of great things and good people who helped raise me still living in Geneseo. As is the case with many small towns, it's the connection you have with the people that make it special and I'm grateful for my small town upbringing. Be sure to catch our stories tomorrow starting at 4 p.m. on the KSCW, and we will be live at 5 and 6 from Geneseo. I hope you get a chance to watch. It's something different on our newscasts for a change... and we hope you like it.