Good New Year's Eve bloggers,
2023 is about to wrap up and before we look ahead to 2024, lets look back at 2023 and 2022 rainfall.
2023 is going to finish about 2" below average in rainfall. The 11th wettest December helped us gain some ground at the last minute. 2022 finished almost 5" below average, so we are heading in the right direction.
When you look at the rainfall deficits for 2023 around the area, there are some astonishing numbers. Nevada to Kirksville, Missouri, and in southeast Kansas around Iola are running nearly 2 feet below average for the year. Now, these are estimates from satellite data and they may not be totally accurate, but it gives you a general idea of the situation. Moderate to severe drought continues two foot rainfall deficit locations.
OK, now what is in store for 2024? We are tracking a more active weather pattern as we look into the first seven-10 days of the new year.
TODAY-TONIGHT:
Low clouds will keep temperatures from warming up today and the low clouds will act like a blanket tonight keeping the temperatures from falling too much. So, this means today and tonight temperatures will hover around 30°. The wind will drop to 10-15 mph from the northwest today and down to 5-10 mph tonight, so at least wind chill values will not be much colder than the air temperature. A flurry or two is not out of the question, but roads will stay dry.
This still means you need to bundle up if you are headed to the Chiefs game or out and about tonight to ring in 2024.
Please DO NOT drink/text drive as there is a Drunk/Texting while driving warning in effect.
This is in memory of all who have been injured or killed in drunk/texting while driving accidents. We started showing this over 30 years ago in memory of Nathan McDuffie, who lost his life in a drunk driving accident.
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JAN. 1-4:
It will be dry Monday through Thursday with highs mostly in the low to mid 40s and lows in the 20s. This is near to above average as the average high is around 38° and the average low is around 20°.
JAN. 5-10:
We are tracking two storm systems. Keep in mind we do not see any Arctic air coming down before the 10th as it remains bottled up near the North Pole and over in Siberia. You can still get winter weather without Arctic air, but it makes it more tricky, especially around here.
The first storm to track is around Jan. 5-6, next Friday-Saturday. On this data we are in snow, but you can see some green around. If the storm takes the perfect track like is shown below, we may see some snow. But, any farther south, we see little to no precipitation and any farther north we see a cold rain.
The second storm is timed for January 8-10. This looks like a bigger storm, but you can see a rain-snow line to the north. Again, no Arctic air, so the storm will have to track farther south for our area to see snow. Any farther north, we will get all rain. As is, on the storm track, we get rain too.
The rainfall/melted snow total for the two storm systems may be around 1"-2". January, on average, is our driest month of the year. We average 1.16" of rain/melted snow. There are strong signs that January will be wetter than average, but will it be snowier than average? We average 4.9" of snow in January and the storm tracks will answer the snow question. There are some signs that we could see some Arctic air after the storm on the 10th. That is something to watch for sure.
We will be updating all of this during the week.
Have a happy and safe New Year.
Stay healthy.
