KANSAS CITY, Mo. We’re almost done with the first week of March. On Sunday, we’ll be setting our clocks forward one hour to mark the start of Daylight Saving Time. The sun will set at about 7:22 p.m., so the evening light will be later. It may start looking like spring out there.
This past weekend, it felt like spring with temperatures in the lower 70s yesterday. A cold front has come through the region and our early morning high of 62 degrees is about as good as we’ll do today.
Temperatures all week will be slowly heading downwards to some extent. No more 70s. As a matter of fact, after an okay day today, 40s are likely to be the main feature of the week into the weekend. And with the cooler weather comes numerous rain chances to contend with.
Once again, this looks to be all rain with not much of a risk of snow. So it goes around these parts. There are still some indications of snow risks down the road, but that snow road is getting shorter and shorter as winter is trying to wrap up to an extent.
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Kansas City Forecast:
Today: Variable clouds with more sunshine south compared to north, at least for the morning. Highs today will range from the mid-to-upper 50s on the northside to about 5 degrees milder on the south side. Breezy as well this afternoon.
Tonight: Partly cloudy and chillier with lows down to near 32 degrees.
Tomorrow: Increasing clouds and showers developing in the afternoon through the early evening hours. Highs may be only in the 40s.
Wednesday: Lots of clouds with a chance of some drizzle at times. Highs in the mid-40s.
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Discussion:
A word for the weather this week. Meh.
March, as we all know, can be a fickle month around these parts. It could be in the 80s, it could be in the 30s. It could rain a lot, it still could snow a lot. Typically there is a lot of wind, and sometimes there are severe weather risks as well. Like I said, a fickle month typically.
Usually, whatever type of weather you are getting doesn’t stick around for many days. The pattern can be fast changing from one end to the other. And after today, temperatures will be trending downwards.
March also sees a nice rise in the average highs especially. Today for example, the average high is 51 degrees and the average low is 30 degrees. By the end of the month, it’s 61 degrees for the high and 39 degrees for the low. Record highs start soaring as well, with some records into the 90s. So things start to change.
Overnight and this morning, we’ve seen a cold front come through and that is shoving the milder weather of yesterday to the south of the metro. Still not terrible today, although clouds are trying to sneak in from the north this morning.
We should get some sunshine north of Interstate 70 for a few hours this morning. Then the issue is the clouds towards the north.
They’re there and they’re creeping southwards. At the same time, they’re also starting to thin out and break up to some extent.
The winds will be increasing as the day goes along as well from the north. Yesterday, we had more of a southerly component to the winds and they were gusting to almost 40 mph. The winds are different today and that difference is cooler air filtering southwards.
Rain chances in KC this week
This cooler air will remain with us for quite some time it appears. Tomorrow, weak disturbances will be coming into the cooler air. This will help to keep the atmosphere moist and allow some lift to create areas of showers and perhaps a few rumbles, mainly in the afternoon and early evening.
These disturbances aren’t strong. They’re moving quickly and the rain won’t be overly heavy.
Tomorrow afternoon, one appears to be heading right towards the metro. You can see it pretty clearly as we go up to about 18,000 feet to what we refer to as the 500-millibar level.
Why do I show you these types of maps at that particular level? Because it is roughly halfway up in the atmosphere. Towards the bottom of things, the surface pressure is roughly 1000 mbs, while up to the top (close to 30 miles up) the pressure is 0 mbs. The reality is half the mass of the atmosphere is in the bottom 20,000 feet of the atmosphere. So it’s a key level to track things.
That disturbance should set of some areas of fast-moving rains. Not a lot though.
Then on Wednesday, we’re sort of in no man’s land: A cool and somewhat moist lower part of the atmosphere, with very little support aloft for much rain. No identifiable areas of disturbances in the flow, perhaps some areas of drizzle or mist. Overall, just no real areas of lift out there to get anything more significant.
On Thursday, a more substantial wave will be coming out towards the area. This will be connected to a stronger upper-level feature that will be moving towards the Plains, close to the I-80 corridor. Another fast-moving disturbance on the south side of that feature will zip through the region. The speed of it should keep rain amounts on the lower side.
Overall, the rain amount this week should be about 1/4 inch to 1 inch. Not a ton, but certainly enough to keep things wet and moist concerning the soil.
Not a lot of change into the weekend. Friday should be drier, but we may see some rain develop on Saturday. A cool weekend is expected as well.
So it goes, March is a fickle month.
Early tomorrow is the full “worm” moon. Why?
“The “Worm” Moon reaches full phase before dawn and is visible for much of the night this evening. Other names for this moon include the “sugar moon” from the Ojibwe tribe, marking the time sap of sugar maples begins to flow The Pueblo peoples refer to the March full moon as the Wind Strong Moon, noting the strong winds that arrive around this time of year. The Dakota, Lakota, and other Native American peoples in the upper Midwest call this the Sore Eyes Moon, for the bright sunlight reflecting off the melting snow of late winter. This last full moon of winter is also known as the Lenten Moon to Christianity with the next being the Paschal Full Moon, following the equinox on March 20.”
From Tony Rice
The feature photo is from Vickie Norris Anderson, up in Dearborn, Missouri.
Have a few things going on tomorrow… questionable blog.
Joe