KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Short blog today since I have a day off, but with my schedule this week (especially in the mornings when I usually write up the blogs) being crazy, I thought I’d get something out to you while I have a few minutes to write. I may do some evening blogs this week.
The big story: the heat. We got blasted late yesterday afternoon with hot air and tied the record high of 96 degrees set back in 1925. Today and tomorrow (with a small chance of this happening on Wednesday as well) we should tie or break the current records. I wrote about this last week, and here we are.
The rain situation still isn’t great, but some rain is expected with a seasonably strong cold front coming sometime Wednesday. The rain will likely be behind the front, so rain chances may increase Wednesday night and Thursday morning. This will be dependent on the front itself.
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Kansas City Forecast:
Today: The record high temperature is 95 degrees set back in 1931, and again in 1954. Partly cloudy with highs between 95-100 degrees.
Tonight: Fair and warm with lows in the mid-70s.
Tomorrow: The record high temperature is 95 degrees set in 1948. Highs again 95-100 degrees.
Wednesday: Tricky day depending on the front position. Could be a day where we have a 20-degree swing in temperatures from north to south in the afternoon. Highs may again be 90-95 degrees with a slower front, or closer to 75-80 degrees with a faster front. We could even have a midnight high that day, depending on the front moving in. Rain chances increase later in the day or at night.
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Discussion:
That hot air blast was impressive yesterday with clouds and a few showers holding us back for awhile, but when it cleared out and the winds increased, it got hot and fast.
This is a tweet I sent out yesterday:
That’s a good amount of hot air in the Plains. Today we’re in that air mass.
Tomorrow:
Here is another way of looking at it: These are the cities that could get records over the next few days.
If the front slows down a bit, there may be more records closer to the metro again.
When to expect the next front, rain chances
Last night’s EURO model did in fact slow the front down. The NAM and GFS modes are a bit quicker which has big implications on Wednesday’s forecast.
For example, here is the EURO and GFS forecasts for high temperatures on Wednesday:
You can see the north side of the metro from Interstate 70 north has the most difference compared to the south part of the area. Again, it depends on the frontal timing and the push behind the front.
Some rain will have to happen with this transition from a record hot air mass to a seasonably cool air mass coming on Thursday.
Then after the cooler air comes in, it will start to retreat. There may be some additional chances of rain heading into the weekend out there.
Hurricane Fiona
The other story of the day/past weekend is Fiona, which while not a powerful hurricane in terms of wind, has created some real bad things with rain.
The flooding on the southern half of the island of Puerto Rico has been devastating: Over 20 inches in spots, with a lot more coming today as the core of the hurricane moves into the Dominican Republic.
You can see additional rain bands moving from the south to the north.
Those bands have been the biggest offenders to piling up the totals. A really bad situation down there.
Power went out island wide yesterday and their grid remains very fragile after previous hurricane hits.
That’s all the time for the day. The feature photo is from Dan Michalek.
Joe
