Good afternoon bloggers,
Meteorologist Brett Anthony is doing a great job updating you on NBC Action News Mid-Day. Today was the debut of our new 11 AM newscast and just another way we can bring you Kansas City's most accurate forecast. We are debuting our new weekend morning newscast a week from Saturday on January 26th. NBC Action News will be on every weekend morning at 8 AM. Jeremy Nelson will be doing the weather on the weekend broadcasts.
ARCTIC AIR WATCH continues for the second half of January and now into February
There is so much going on today in the weather pattern. If you love winter weather, like I do, then it is very exciting. If you look at our last blog entry we showed the potential snow behind the first cold front in a series of fronts that will likely be bringing us Arctic air soon. The latest data digs the upper level trough a bit farther west. That separation in the southern wave is a bit stronger and it produces even more precipitation. If this trend continues then 1 to 4 inches of snow will be possible on Wednesday. Look below at the latest precipitation forecast from the GFS.
This map, above is the GFS forecast predicting about 2 to 4 inches of snow. We will have our snowfall forecast on our newscasts tonight at 5, 6, and 10 PM. We would like to look over some new data and do some analysis before we jump on the higher accumulation bandwagon of the GFS.
ARCTIC AIR WATCH, may have to be upgraded to a warning later this week (there is no official Arctic Air Watch from the National Weather Service, it is just something I thought would be good to have so you can get ready for the cold). Look below at the latest 7 day GFS. This is almost exactly what happened in late November and December. The pattern continues to cycle and right on schedule here it comes. We told you about this weeks ago and it sort just blows my mind that it is happening exactly as expected. We predicted this before any of the models and based just on our knowledge of the LRC. So, what is going to happen? Look below at the forecast GFS valid one week from today. Cross Polar flow is forecast to develop and there is a trough carved out over the west. This is the first run to have an entire series of storm systems sort of lining up to hit us, so we will just see how this trends but it fits the pattern almost perfectly. This time, however, it will likely be colder than in December.
This next map, below, WOW! Suddenly the cold air is trying to become established. This is very cold 30 to 40 degrees below zero over a large area due north of us. With this flow coming cross Polar we will likely get a few really strong shots from this source region and that is a developing Polar Vortex up there. This will have the potential to put us into the deep freeze, but I am not ready to go there yet. The snow pack will be growing over the next two weeks.
Notice that the 10 degree line is near Kansas City. This is forecast to be there at 6 PM next Monday, so if there is snow on the ground there will be a chance of our first below zero air of the season.
This is just the beginning of a long stormy and wintry stretch lasting into a large part of February. Get ready for some true winter weather, bundle up, and we will keep you updated. Make sure you watch our newscasts tonight. The most accurate forecast is only on NBC Action News! We hope you notice the difference.
Gary and the NBC Action Weather Team