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lol.... is wearing a "dog collar" a new fashion trend??? i've heard of fur collars before, but uh.... ;-)

wow! HARD freeeze this morning in Lee's Summit.... Frost on the ground and it's 28 degrees!

Having been some days in preparation
A splendid time is guaranteed for all
And today Stormy the Dog is topping the bill

Looks like everyone had a good time.

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Thanks, and Stormy did a good job with her tricks too.

Gary

Great pictures of you and Stormy!  Last time I was in Chillicothe was when we got Brock the psycho Boston!  Finally got myself a weather radio, can't wait for the next exciting round of rain/storms!

"It is severe weather season and there will likely be some severe weather with this storm system, but the best chance appears to be south of our local area once again."

Looks like this spring's weather pattern is setting up very much like last spring... when all the strong storm systems went south and we were stuck in the cooler Pacific flow.  

Before last spring, I couldn't remember a time when we were in mid-April and had such a slow start to the severe storms to that point.  Turns out, we hardly had any severe weather at all last spring.  This spring seems to be setting up the same way.  

I can recall several years in a row where we would have severe thunderstorm warnings on almost a nightly basis.  To be under a Severe Thunderstorm/Tornado Watch was the norm... not the exception.  The past two springs have been quite the opposite.  

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Not really!   Last year had a big jump start to the season and then backed off a bit.  This year has been too cool for our local area, thus far, but this same pattern will be producing in the coming weeks.  And, April usually only has a few severe weather days.  Our active months are May and June.  The weather pattern we are in now is so different than last year.  This is a wet pattern, whereas last year we struggled to have significant widespread rainfall.

Gary

Wow! Isn't stormy a little to big,heavy to have a piggy back ride? :)

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She is just the right weight.  Stormy weighs around 39 lbs. 

Gary

Great pictures! I hope a lot of people took the opportunity to buy weather radios, I'm a big believer in them! I'm excited that it will actually stay warm for the weekend, for once.

So what are the chances we will not see another freeze this spring? I would like to start some planting in my new backyard and would hate to see another freeze.

You can probably not worry about cold unless you are planting summer plants (like tomatoes or basil). The big issue for planting now is wet soil. It's bad for the soil to till wet ground, and plants don't really like being set into wet, cool clay.

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There is still a chance of another freeze.  A very cold air mass if forecast to form over Canada this week.  Let's see how this evolves.

Gary

RDub,
My low was 24F this morning.
You could definitely see where the heat island was this morning considering Lawrence was 23F for the low and the Downtown Airport was 30-31F.

I bought a Weather Radio and I am really quite disappointed, apparently north of Leavenworth we do not have a signal to pick up , or it is operator error.

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I am not sure.  If anyone else has any ideas let us know.

Gary

Good pic's Gary!! I want to buy a weather radio but we do not have a tower here in Linn County...so should I get one? Some people here in town have weather radio's and they have their's programmed for the counties around them...like Bourbon and Franklin...then when it sounds for those counties they are aware something is coming or is around them. What do you think of that? I guess it is better than nothing in the middle of the night. Have a great day.
Monica
Pleasanton, KS

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Monica,

As long as you can get reception, a weather radio is a must for every household.  Programming for the counties around you is not a bad idea at all.

Gary

26 and light frost south of Pleasant Hill. Let's hope the Japanese maple didn't suffer any additional damage as last year's late freeze decimated it.

Looking great, Gary! How are the workouts coming?

Also, can you make any general observations about the coming months and summer? Do you think we'll be cooler than usual?

Mike

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Mike,

I lean strongly in the cooler and wetter forecast through the summer.

Gary

I hear that you recently put out a generalized spring forecast, but are you going to put out another detailed, 45-day forecast based on your cycling weather theory or have you discontinued those?

Lawrence's lows are always lower than surrounding areas because the airport is in the river valley.

28 at my house in OP.

The chance of another freeze is why you can't plant basil or tomatoes or other summer plants yet. But even if we do get one (or even two) more nights below freezing, there are plenty of plants that can handle that.

I see you got a nice comment in the letters  (metro section) of the KC Star.    Its nice to get some positive input once and awhile.    You should check it out, it will make your day.    I think his letter speaks for alot of us.  

Great Job!!!!
Joe

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Joe,

I haven't looked in the letters to the editor section in a long time.  Wow, that is a good one!  No, a great one!  It has made my day.  Now, I better get the forecast right!

Gary

This is in response to the person who lives north of Leavenworth and doesn't pick up any reception on the weather radio.  I have my radio by a window and it gets great reception. I also keep it on the top most floor of my house.  The radio should pick up reception on channel 7, and even other channels as I am able to do on mine.  The link below is from the NWS in Pleasant Hill and shows where the repeaters are located and how far their signal strength reaches.  Try the radio on channel 7 first.  Leavenworth county is one of the counties that the office in P.H. is responsible for.  If the radio is an older type, the frequency for the channel is 162.55MHz.  I hope this helps.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/eax/?n=nwr

Hey Gary!

Do you know when the great new graphics will be on the website?

Also, how is the late week storm looking?  Still a bunch of rain?  

Have a wonderful day!

Jacob

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Jacob,

Or snow?  The new graphics will be on the web within a week or two.

Gary

Well, Well, well the 12 Z run fits a lot better, it stays "connected" right until it passes us then it cuts-off and gets Hooked on the Mississippi River, and dumps, still could get a good "splash" out of it though. As each week goes along it looks more and more apparent that it is going to be a lonnnnnnnnnng spring for almost the entire Mississippi River area.  Well a clear nice day today, weird seeing the trees still so bare.

I'm with you Nick, its been years since I've seen the tree's and flowers being so far behind, very sad. Of course its because of this horrible cold spring. At this rate it may be the middle of May before things look normal. With the way things are going, I am worried about another killing freeze maybe late April or early May. Gary do you have any thoughts on this possibility?  

Gary,
My mom pointed out that letter to the editor tin the KC Star today.  Very nice letter!

The blossoms on our Cleveland Select tree seemed to come thru the cold weather last night OK.  Hopefully, our peony bushes fared as well.

Kristi

I AM SO HAPPY!! Last night's freeze didn't do ANY damage to any of our plants! This week will probably send the plants into a growing spree. A lot of plants will probably be blooming later this week.

One night in the mid to upper 20s is not a big deal to spring plants. During last year's freeze, everything was fine after the first two nights when the lows were around 28. It was the lows near 20 and in the upper teens that did the damage.

do the chickens ahve large talons


Anyway we will have some flooding Thursday

It looks like the 540 line passes through on the 84hr frame.  Is it possible that we will see a few flakes, or will it be all rain since it is mid April?

Thanks, Eswar

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Eswar,

Here we go again.  Well, let's wait until tomorrow and see how this is trending.  This is one of our classic "slide by" storm systems.

Gary

Yeah, chfs327, probably an ice storm too.

there has been another 'cold, damp' setup showing up consistently on the gfs for a while, since before our last storm.  all i can say is that given the way this spring has gone i would rule nothing out at this time.  

24.1 degrees this morning....

I just want the weather to warm up and stay that way.  The up and down is not good on the body.  Plus I am sick of cool weather.

Kristi

on a separate note, i think your forecast high temps for midweek are a wee bit too high.  especially wednesday...although i would welcome those temps, i see only one day in the 70's(wed), and it being low-mid 70s at best.  i see thursday being cooler, too...like in the 50's.

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Murph,

I have 49 for a high on Thursday.  I just didn't change the 7 day online as we are in the process of putting our new graphics.  I think it is updated now.  So, you don't see 76 degrees on Wednesday?

Gary

SNOW! How much can we expect on thursday into friday? I think I may hurl now because I actually let myself type the word! Today was absotively beautiful hope all enjoyed. (Disclaimer, the first sentence in this entry was purely sarcastic)

if it were to do anything close, the timing would be late thursday evening to early friday morning.  however, the cold air doesnt look too impressive on the 18z...its still cold enough, but not as deep as the last go around...so expect a shorter duration IF anything happens at all.

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Realistically, with a saturated airmass we will have a hard time producing snow with Thursday evenings setup.  The thickness would have to be closer to 534 or lower. So, a cold rain with a snowflake mixed in is all I am expecting, unless it gets a bit deeper.

Gary

Bootz, in regards to your question about the radio reception, I thought there was some info with the Midland radios in case you can't find a signal.  Also, if you lookat the Midland web site, there is some more info for this type of situation.  Best of luck, and I hope you never need it.

pvt_murphy, thanks, I hope you read my disclaimer though...

Good Evening Gary,

Currently sitting under clear skies with a temp of 37 degrees. Winds are generally calm.  And the pressure is 29.35".

Today was a very nice day! The high got all the way up to 72degrees! The wind was generally calm with breezes out of the NNW. Todays low was 27 degrees. What a difference! I actually went fishing for an hour after work this evening and it didnt feel too bad.

Randy in very pleasant at the moment Chillicothe.

the brisk wind and 13 rs of sun will dry things tues and wed before more rain comes people underesteminate the winds drying out things even at 55-68 tomarrow and 60 -74 on wed.,  still very little in greening on the trees but the grass is going need to mow bad..... we need to pop up into the 72-77 range nute 55-59 for 2-3 days to get things fired up but the sun's really helping my disposition.....GOD BLESS  24.2 this am at my house good freeze and frost but nothing to kill. lilacs are not even out yet.....

Why are the ob stations in eastern KS reporting SMOKE and HAZE right now???
Are they burning the Flint Hills again?

The current Observations for Topeka Forbes Field:
48F
Smoke
Visibility 4 miles
Wind SE 9mph

Manhattan, KS

temp 49F
dewpoint 26F
VISIBILITY: 2.5 miles
Fair with Haze

A pretty interesting write-up by the EAX office about why, on such a clear day, the radar was NOT clear today:
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=eax&storyid=14153&source=0

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I was wondering as well.  Thanks for the information.  If it wasn't so clear today I would have tried to figure it out.  I was just working so hard on our new computers.

Gary

Notes,

I saw the same thing earlier!

NotesInThe Margin,
Obviously some burning is still going on if the visibility is reduced to less than 4 miles at both Topeka and Manhattan!
Hopefully the weather won't be too windy tomorrow!!!

i was hoping you'd mention me, lol. you didnt at 5 or 6 but thats ok.

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Randy,

I got you in at 10.  They only give me so much time!  I probably should have posted the picture of you, me and Stormy!  That is a good one.

Have a great night!!! I am sorry I made you wait until 10 PM.  I really had a great time up in Chillicothe visiting everyone.

Gary

I thought I saw some spots near the area on the regional radar, but it was so clear I did not even think to take a closer look!!!!
Oh, and yes it looked like Gary and Stormy had a good time in Chillicothe, Interesting footage of the buildings there!
One thing about this next set-up that I think is impressive is on Wed. morning the NAM is advertising near 80 m.p.h. winds at just 5000 feet off the surface, look like we will need to hold on to our hats tomorrow through Wed. midday.  
Also back to the late blooming of the trees, one other thing that makes it look so surreal is not only are the trees still so bare, but they are so damaged by the ice storm it really makes for a stark visual that seems to punctuate the harsh long winter that seems to want to hang on into the spring. In heavily wooded areas there are still a tree or two that are completely uprooted and just lying there, I know this has been true for months now, but sometimes when you pause to look at and think about it you really realize the scope of that natural event and how massive it was. Especially now since everybody's pretty much back to our normal pace and have been for a long time that you almost forget that all around us is the aftermath of a natural disaster just hanging there in the trees. Well a bit of a ramble tonight!;)
Good night!

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Nick,

Yes, it is going to get windy!

Gary

Gary:

Good warmish morning to you sir!! Currently sitting at 37 degrees and the wind is already beginning to pick up here-but man, it is pretty nice out this morning!!!

Wow-an entry two days in a row-like Randy Quaid said in Independence Day-hello boys, I'm back......

Not to go away from my mantra, a couple of random musings this morning-hope they make some sense!!!

1. Latest surface observations already show some 36 MPH wind gusts at Hays, Kansas this morning. The Kansas song people of South Wind will really ring true today!!!!!

2. The storm later this week will be interesting to follow and we are already being affected by it with the wind the next 48 hours. The GFS does not close off the Upper Level Low as it did on earlier runs but still looks to give us some decent rain. Still so many runs to go but it looks safe to say that we are going to have another decent weather maker later this week. I would love to get another 1/2 inch of rain and it does not seem out of the realm of possibilites. What ever the case, fun to watch unfold!!!

3. Both the Euro and GFS are showing what I think is a very decent build up of cold air in Canada for this time of year. I may be way off here, but it looks pretty impressive for this time of year. How this comes down (if it does at all??) will be something to watch. Based on the LRC this season, I would think it will get here in some form or fashion. How will it affect us-will be interesting to watch for sure!!

Well, have a great day-hold onto your hats today for sure-man those winds are going to be a blowing today!!!! Take care and as always, thanks for reading and providing such a great place to discuss and follow the weather!!!! You guys are all Aces!!

Bill in Lawrence

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Bill,

It is great having you back! It has been quite busy for us as we learn how to use the new computers.

Gary