Friday, April 16, 2010

Rain & Return of Seasonable Weather

A cold front has pushed through a majority of the Central Plains over the past 24 hours, leaving us with more of a normal air mass for early April. Rainfall during the overnight was fairly heavy across parts of northeast Kansas and northwest Missouri, but decreased dramatically as it entered the Kansas City Metro. The 24-hour precipitation totals show this quite well:

St. Joseph - 0.59"
Kansas City Intl - 0.36"
Johnson Co. Exec - 0.06"
Olathe Airport - 0.04"
Lee's Summitt - 0.03"


We've cleared the skies out this evening, and with light northerly winds across the area will likely see some very crisp overnight lows tonight and for the next few nights as a high pressure system settles over the region. High temperatures over the weekend will be more typical for this time of the year, in the mid 60s for the Kansas City Metro. Into next week expect to see the high temperatures slowly moderate into the lower 70s, and lows should increase with the slow but sure increase in moisture and the exit of the high pressure center.

The next storm system for the Central Plains will likely come late next week as a cutoff low pressure system is forecast to finally push onto the Plains. There will likely be a limited severe weather threat as the system makes its' way across the Plains states given its' dynamic qualities. However, moisture return is a large question at this point and thus the quality of thermodynamics that this system has to work with will likely be its' limiting factor. Nonetheless it's the next thing in sight and will be watched as it comes onshore early next week and stalls along the West Coast.

Enjoy the sunny and more seasonable weekend!

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