Joe's Weather Blog: Needed rains and more 'cool' days

This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — We’re down to the last few days of the month and while it will be an above-average month regarding temperatures, we’re finishing it off with a nice streak of at least below-average highs. Monday and Tuesday were both in the top five of coolest highs for their particular dates. Today likely will end up closer to average but still below as clouds will keep things in check for awhile.

Last night’s and this morning’s rain was another good one for parts of the area. As expected, the better rains were on the south side with totals over 1 inch in some areas. Pretty vivid lightning as well, as the storms were coming into the area. There were some 2-plus-inch totals again down in southwest Johnson County, Kansas, and from Edgerton to Spring Hill, nearly 2.5 inches fell. That area has seen now two big rains in the last few days.

There’s another opportunity tonight and then perhaps on Sunday after that the rains become spottier to likely non-existent for next week as hotter and more humid air moves into the Plains again.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Kansas City forecast:

Today: Cloudy skies giving way to sunshine in the afternoon. Highs in the mid-80s.

Tonight: Another chance of showers/storms. Mild with lows in the 70-degree range.

Tomorrow: Partly cloudy and drying out with highs in the lower 80s.

Friday: Variable clouds and not too bad for late July with highs in the lower 80s.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Discussion:

Yesterday was quite the day, in Missouri especially. Raging and record heat in southern Missouri: Springfield was 104 degrees; Tremendous rains in the St. Louis area, 6-12-plus inches worth; and our coolness for late July. Temperatures from north to south in Missouri varied from near 70 degrees for a high into the 100-105-degree range for highs.

Southern Kansas also was in the 100s as well. The heat is just a few hours drive away, but it will be getting squashed southwards over the coming days. There is actually some rain in the forecast for southern Missouri into Friday and amounts may exceed 1-2 inches in spots. It’s so needed down there and that will temporarily put an end to the extreme heat.

The bigger rains last night o this morning were south of Interstate 70.

Note the areas in southern Johnson County, Kansas.

North of I-70:

Nobody complaining too much although I think southern Johnson County, Kansas can use a few drier days.

Southern Missouri is finally going to get into some rain as well.

This would help them out tremendously through early Saturday.

We’re not done yet locally, although I’m not 100% convinced we’re going to get a lot tonight north of I-70. But there should be some sort of disturbance coming out of Nebraska and moving towards the region. That may help the cause on the north side to some degree. So we’re not done yet with the rain opportunities.

Since the wetter weather has started again to some degree, the last few days have been good for many:

Rain from the 24th through this morning

Notice though that some counties south of the metro are languishing and once you get towards southern Missouri… nada really. That’s one of the many reasons they need more rain!

Yesterday records were set in many areas of southwestern Missouri and into Oklahoma again. Parts of Oklahoma reached almost 110 degrees, which is becoming a common thing this summer.

The heat (which for us has been suppressed this week) will be increasing again next week as a hotter air mass expands through the Plains and the upper Midwest. This will likely bring much more humid conditions to the region with higher temperatures. The rains that we’ve seen over the past couple of days (and perhaps tonight) and Sunday’s chance will start really evaporating into the lower part of the atmosphere. Dew points well into the 70s are more likely than not this time.

Temperatures will likely be into the 90s for awhile too, starting perhaps on Monday and mid-to-upper 90s are not out of the question.

The 8-14 day outlook has this look.

We’re likely really going to dry out again as well.

I don’t think we’ll see 100 degrees from this “officially” at least, but it will be worth watching. You can sort of see the heat forecast expanding into the Plains towards the end of this animation.