Good morning bloggers,
Our new weather page is up. We will be adding other features soon. Let us know what you think. We love the functionality of it as you can pan across the small maps as they appear below in the big screen. ESP and our skyviews are timelapses. And, we have new landsat mapping to have higher resolution on ESP and our graphics for our weathercasts.
Last night was an electrively active one just south and southwest of Kansas City. There is a weak front stalled southwest of us this morning and it will drift our way tonight. And, an upper level storm is developing/approaching from the Rockies. This will help create a new area of thunderstorms tonight that should drift over the local region. But, some areas will get missed again on Tuesday. Look below at the upper level forecast for noon Tuesday:
These maps are of the 500 mb level. This level is 18,000 feet up in the atmosphere, or around half way through the atmosphere in weight. It is my favorite level of the atmosphere to follow and track the weather pattern. I drew in a dotted line through western Kansas. This is valid at 1 PM Tuesday. There is a weak upper level storm moving our way, and combined with a weak front slowly drifting northeast, some heavy thunderstorms will likely form tonight, but this time a bit closer to Kansas City.
After this disturbance moves by, we will likely see our first 90 degree day on Wednesday or, more likely, Thursday. Then, after this one little warm-up, another cold front should move through by Friday. Look below at the forecast 500 mb flow for this Saturday:
By Saturday, the anticyclone (opposite of a cyclone) may have formed at 500 mb over the 4 corners. At the same time a strong summer storm is moving across the northern Great Lakes and southern Canada. This will drag a cold front through us, and bring with it our next chance of thunderstorms.
Stormy is on NBC Action News every Friday at 5 PM for a brief appearance during the end of our newscast each week. I rarely talk about Breezy. She is two years old and doing well. She has been in training for the past few months. Her behavior has improved dramatically with people, but she still has a few aggressive behaviors, especially with certain other dogs. I love her so much, and I am impressed with her improvements and maturity. But, we still have to watch her carefully. This picture was taken over the weekend. She likes to give hugs.
Stormy, Breezy and I will be on our way to Colorado Tuesday. I am going to the Broadcast conference for the AMS (American Meteorological Society). Wednesday is an all day session on dual polarization radar. Broadcast meteorologists from around the nation will be meeting in Denver and Boulder this week. I am working tonight, and then Jeremy Nelson will be filling in for me beginning tomorrow.
Have a great day! Be sure to watch NBC Action News at 11 AM, 5, 6, and 10 PM tonight as we analyze this developing weather situation.
Gary