KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Happy Hump Day Blog Readers,
We are getting ready to shake this cold air.
As we approach Opening Day for the Royals, we're right back into the spring rhythm. With that, we've got a new rain window to watch by Friday night.
Bye-Bye Cold Air
We have a system approaching to our north that will carry the cold air north and put it back where it belongs.
This means a nice regional warm up in the next 24 hours, just in time for the Royals to kick off their season. We are tracking mid 60's for the first pitch, and temperatures should hold for most of the game.
But, what goes up must come down. The warm front that will lift the cold air back north does have a trailing cold front associated with it. The good news is, we aren't tracking a big cool down, and before the cold front arrives, we will get another boost of heat by Friday.
Expect Friday to easily warm into the 70s thanks to a strong south flow. So, we will close out the work week on a warm but breezy note. As we head into the weekend, there is an unsettled pattern setting up, and temperatures will cool back down into the low 60s by Saturday.
Next Storm Window: March 30 - April 2
There is an impressive atmospheric river impacting the West Coast right now. As this system slides down the California coast, it will bring heavy rains to the West. This storm will also nudge our jet stream around a bit.
We've also got high pressure building over the Plains for the weekend, but the jet is being moved south enough by that big system to keep us in a favorable zone for moisture transport. We usually stay dry under high pressure, but when you are right on the edge and the flow from the West is as moist as it is right now, we can't rule out some weak surface-based systems flaring up, which I like to call ridge riders.
The first window for ridge riders looks to arrive late Friday night into early Saturday morning. This should be a short-lived rain and it shouldn't ruin the entire day.
As we look ahead to Easter Sunday, the ridge of high pressure moves southeast, placing us on the backside of the ridge for some ridge riders to form after Sunday morning. This could pop another round of wet weather, but this could also shift east quickly. It may shift east enough to keep us completely dry Sunday, but we are certainly on the edge.
These two rain chances aren't too impressive overall, but worth watching, especially if you have plans Saturday morning or Sunday evening.
The better rain — and possibly even severe storm — set-up looks to arrive Monday night into Tuesday. This is when we get the jet to move into a favorable position for stronger storms to develop.
The positive tilt in the trough toward the four-corners region has my attention. Right now, the storm timeline looks to be overnight around late Monday night into Tuesday. Some rain could linger into Tuesday as well.
April Line Up
April is leaning on maintaining an active jet stream, which means above-average precipitation is favored for the Kansas City area. But, there is more than our atmospheric patterns to watch this month — we've got some really cool stellar sights! Besides our solar eclipse, we've also got a meteor shower, a comet visible and, of course, our full moon.
While we are on the subject of the total solar eclipse, here is a look at the path the eclipse is taking across the country.
Kansas City, while we aren't right in its path, we will have a really great viewing opportunity (weather permitting) with the sun to be 90.5% blocked by the moon. It's too soon to talk about cloud cover, or if we will be able to see it or not, but you can at least mark your calendars for April 8. And if you are up for traveling, you can check out this map to find a good spot!
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