Good Frigid morning NBC Action Weather Bloggers,
It is another Frigid morning! And, a strong Arctic front will pass through on Wednesday, this is one of the strongest ones, but it is the last in the series of Arctic fronts.
The weather pattern then is about to get stormier. Before we go into the LRC and our forecast for the next two weeks let's look back. We have had 11 storm systems of various kinds since December 1st. This is about one every 5 days, and this streak does not show any sign of ending. Look below at the list of storm systems:
- December 1st-2nd: Brief freezing rain changes to rain, then the warm front on steroids warms us up to 65 degrees.
- December 6th: Snow begins at 9 AM. 1"-4" (our first inch at 12:17 PM)
- December 8th-11th: A 4 day storm (really two to three storms in one long event) ending in a major ice storm up north. It was very wet.
- December 15th: Snow as 1-4 inches falls
- December 22nd: Major winter storm. Heavy sleet, rain, snow.....7 inches in St. Joseph
- December 26th: Light snow heaviest in Overland Park. 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches falls
- Decembther 28: Snow with 2" to 3" in most areas, missing areas to the south again
- New Year's Eve: Trace with a few snow showers
- January 8th: Thunderstorms (tornado outbreak over southern Missouri)
- January 10th: Heavy rain, snowflakes mixed in with 4 inches in Cameron, MO
- January 16th-17th: Rain/snow line moves slowly across ending with 1-5 inches of snow
The stormiest and wettest part of the pattern has now happened twice since this years LRC began. In October we had a series of 4 storm systems, one of which was very wet. In December, a series of storm systems directly related to those October storms returned, with three other bonus smaller storm systems still producing significant precipitation. That wetter and stormier part of the pattern is now expected to return during the next four weeks. And, most of the computer models are now trending in this direction. And, I am expecting the series of storm systems to return right on schedule. There are still a lot of questions:
- #1: How much cold air will be available for the late January/February version of these storms?
- #2: Will they be stronger or weaker than the October and December series of storms?
- #3: Could they produce the same precipitation patterns that we have seen all season?
This season we have had 2 inches of snow in Pleasanton, Linn county Kansas, and 25 inches of snow from around Topeka to St. Joseph and northeast to the Iowa border. We have noticed in other years these patterns tend to continue all season long. When we issued our 45 day forecast based on the LRC weeks ago, I anticipated these storm systems being a bit stronger and more wide spread as we move into February, and this may very well happen. There is a low confidence factor on the stronger part, but it is possible, however my confidence is extremely high that these storm systems will be lining up soon. The ECMWF and the GFS runs have been trending towards one of our wetter storms next week. And, two smaller systems could affect us on Friday and Sunday.
Weather Accuracy! There is one month to go in this season. Weatherate.com keeps track of television stations accuracy from around the nation. NBC Action News has been #1 for 5 years in a row, this being our 5th year. We have likely been #1 much longer than these 5 years, but this is when Weatherate.com came into existence, and started keeping track of television stations forecasts. Before anyone starts wondering about the system or motivation I will make this statement. This is absolutely an even playing field and every one of our competitors can beat us at any time. The new season begins March 1st with everyone tied at zero once again. Most television stations in first place in their markets around the nation decide not to use Weatherate.com to certify them as #1 because they fear they will lose the next year and it will backfire on them. This is a fact as I have talked to other Chief meteorologists in many markets wondering how we do it? I explain that you just have to win every time or it could backfire on you. Anyway, here are the latest numbers with one month to go, and our lead increased as we entered the stormy part of pattern weeks ago:
Ratings as of January 17th (This is like a golf score. The lower the number, the better the forecast. A 0.5 lead is considered strong, our lead is 0.75 right now)
#1: KSHB NBC Action News 5.79
- Second place station: 6.54
- Third place station: 6.85
- Last place station: 7.74
Before anyone comes in and criticizes the system, let's go over it a bit. We welcome you to keep track of the forecasts yourself. Weatherate.com weights the day one forecast more than day 2. And, day 2 is weighted more than day 3. They take the first 4 days of the forecast from the 10 PM newscasts. And, they count highs and lows, rain, snow, cloud cover, snow amounts, severe weather, fog, and wind into the equations. It is the best way to check accuracy out there. And, yes our station pays Weatherate.com for the right to use their name to certify us as the most accurate, but it has absolutely nothing to do with us being #1. As you know we will continue providing Kansas City with, by far, the most accurate forecast out there. We are very proud of this!
Please watch our newscasts today on NBC Action News. Don't forget we have our brand new 11 AM NBC Action News Midday on each weekday morning. And, our new weekend morning newscasts begin this Saturday!
Bundle up! It is a cold morning.
Gary