KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Good morning bloggers,
I have had a lot of frustrated KSHB 41 viewers and fans let me know their frustration over the cold weather and the bouncing from freeze warnings to 80s. Here is one of the statements from Twitter. @KCJedi tweeted, "@glezak Is it going to get warm and stay warm this Spring? Or is it going to go from 40 to 90?" This is the second time in a week that Maryville has had a small accumulation of snow. It was also 86 degrees just five days ago. To answer KCJedi's question: Yes, this pattern is going to continue. Summer is now just over two months away. The jet stream will shift north and summer will arrive, and between now and then these ups and downs will be continuing as it gradually gets warmer.
The battle between spring and winter continues. Look at what is forecast to happen over inland areas of the northeast tonight:
A major storm is going to be blasting up the East Coast today and tonight bringing rain along the coast and a lot of snow inland.
Kansas City has likely had its last chance of snow, and we barely missed it yesterday. Here is a picture from Michael Casteel in Maryville yesterday:
Remember, last year it snowed 3.5 inches in Kansas City on April 20. Warmer days are ahead of us, but winter is still doing battle and winning way too many of them.
This year's LRC is right on target. Take a look at LRC cycles 1, 2, and 4. We just started the fourth LRC Cycle:
A very strong storm formed in the first LRC cycle and lifted out across western Nebraska and the Dakotas on October 13. 63 days later a similar system formed southeast of Salt Lake City on December 15, 2021, and it also vigorously lifted out across the Dakotas as well. And, on the far right is the forecast for later this week showing another vigorous storm forecast to track across the same region.
- In the first LRC Cycle, there was significant severe weather for five days in a row and a stretch of wet and stormy weather that cycled through us over a three week stretch.
- In the second LRC Cycle, there were two major severe weather outbreaks, the first of which produced the horrific tornadoes in Mayfield, Kentucky, and the Mississippi River Valley and then a second major severe weather outbreak that produced tornadoes where tornadoes had never been reported before in December (across northern Iowa and Minnesota). This also produced 77-mile-per-hour winds at the downtown Kansas City airport.
- We have had this in our forecast to arrive this week. In our spring special we made the forecast for this to arrive between April 16 and 24, and here it comes.
So, what does it mean for this week?
That strong storm, shown on the upper right map, will be ripping out of the southern Rocky Mountains and across the northern plains producing another snowstorm in spots that had three feet last week. For Kansas City, this means fronts moving through us, stalling, lifting north, and then moving out by next week. It may end up setting us up for a severe weather risk or two and we will learn more later today.
Freeze warning tonight:
The cooler pattern continues. Expect a high of near 55 degrees today. Tonight, with the clear sky and light winds, we are expecting a freeze with a low near 30 degrees. A few spots will again drop into the 20s. The average date for our last freeze is around April 9, so this is getting a bit late. There is a warm-up in the forecast later this week with some chances for rain and thunderstorms.
Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day reading the weather blog and sharing this weather experience.
Have a great start to the week,
Gary
