Good morning bloggers,
As Jeff Penner wrote yesterday, I am back at the maps tonight. It has been 10 years since those Windy the weather dog commercials ran while I switched stations to become Chief Meteorologist at NBC Action News. I may get those promos out and run them on our website this week. Do you want to see them?
The week is starting out calm and beautiful, very different than last week where we experienced small thunderstorms with microbursts as they colapsed; a line of thunderstorms came in from the northwest on Wednesday with another microburst or two; And, then Saturday night we had a strong to severe thunderstorm develop right near Olathe and then it split and one cell drifted over Overland Park before weakening over Lee's Summit. Quarter size hail fell at Town Center Plaza. One inch of rain fell in some spots from this cell and then as the thunderstorms weakened we had a beautiful sunset ending the week of interesting late June weather. Here is the picture I took Saturday evening as the thunderstorm was passing by. You can see a lowering just west of the main rain shaft in the rain free base of the cell:
And, here is a picture taken by Paul Shehan near Lenexa. You can see the rain shafts being illuminated by the setting sun:
So, what lies ahead? There is a backdoor front heading our way from the northeast. A backdoor front is one that does not come in from the usual direction, the north or northwest. If it is coming in from an easterly component then we call it a backdoor front. There is a pre-frontal trough approaching us today and we will have a good chance of reaching 90 degrees today ahead of this front, but with very low humidity. Then, a cooler airmass will expand over us later tonight into Wednesday. Here is the surface forecast valid at 4 PM today:
We will be in northwest flow all week, so depending on moisture return we could end up in another pattern very favorable for MCS activity by Thursday and possibly into the holiday weekend. We will blog more about this in the coming days. Be sure to watch NBC Action News in HD as we track these weather developments and changes.
I just got back from Portland, OR where the AMS Broadcast conference was located. I did learn a lot and will be applying it in the coming days and weeks as we strive to bring you the best weather experience and weather graphics every day and night. I have a lot of new ideas as we move forward and I think you will notice some of the subtle changes in the next few months. Go back a couple of blog entries to see the pictures from the conference in Portland! I didn't realize that I would be able to see two volcanos from my room: Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens were clearly visible. I stared for hours at the two volcanos and interesting clouds surrounding and developing near them.
Have a fantastic day!
Gary