Good Friday afternoon bloggers,
Hurricane Ike may still strengthen a bit as he is about to blast into the Texas coast near Galveston. We will track Ike tonight at 10 PM as he gets very close to the coast. Ike will have some influence on our weather, but will it be in the form of wind and cooler weather being drawn in, or will it be in the form of very heavy rain? The latest NAM model takes Ike just southeast of our local area, but it is close. A slightly farther west track and we could be in the rain shield. Either way, I think it gets out of here by kickoff on Sunday.
At 4 PM we have a very interesting set up, and thunderstorms are forming. Look at the map below:

I thought we had an inverted trough, but instead there is an entire weak wave cyclone that has developed with a weak warm front and cold front, and a surface low. Temperatures reached 90 degrees, and now there is a tornado warning for Johnson county, MO. Thunderstorms are developing near the warm front and just west of Kansas City. Remember we have a tropical air mass. Some areas could easily get 4 to 5 inches of rain tonight in these convective bands.
Gary