My Writings. My Thoughts.
Lack of Snow for Winter 2011-12
10:32 am on February 2nd, 2012
Categories: General Forecast, General Information, Winter Weather
Statistics from all around the continental United States are being shown regarding the lack of significant snowfall or just the plain lack of snowfall for the winter season thus far. Here in Kansas City, and surrounding areas for that matter, it is no different. Kansas City officially has just 0.4″ of snowfall on the season through January 31, which ties 1988-89 for the lowest amount on record. Let’s take a look back at 1988-89 to see just how that season of snowfall went:
1988-89 Snowfall Amounts (Greater than Trace) for Kansas City (Season Total in Parentheses)
November 20 – 0.1″Â (0.1″)
December 11 – 0.1″Â (0.2″)
January 14 – 0.2″Â (o.4″)
February 2 – 0.2″Â (0.6″)
February 4 – 0.4″Â (1.0″)
February 5 – 2.4″Â (3.4″)
February 6 – 0.3″Â (3.7″)
February 12 – 0.8″Â (4.5″)
February 14 – 0.2″Â (4.7″)
February 15 – 0.2″Â (4.9″)
February 19 – 0.2″Â (5.1″)
February 20 – 1.2″Â (6.3″)
February 26 – 0.6″Â (6.9″)
This shows the 1988-89 season saw measurable snow on February 2 and again on February 4 to push the seasonable total up to 1.0″. With no snow in sight for Kansas City today that means by the end of the day the 2011-12 season will officially be the least snowiest season on record through February 2! How about that for a record…
The next storm system will move across the region on Friday, lingering into Saturday for some, producing widespread precipitation across the Plains. Currently, and I don’t expect this to change much, the best potential for snow will be across areas of Colorado, western & far north-central Kansas, Nebraska and into Iowa. At this point for Kansas City it looks very unlikely for us to see any snow at all, let alone any accumulating snowfall. For laughs and grins let’s go ahead and say we are ‘snow free’ through February 6th (looks likely) and see how we stand on a different record,
Latest Date for 1″ of Accumulation for the Season
1930-31Â -Â March 1
1933-34Â -Â February 11
1922-23Â -Â February 10
2011-12 - ??? ??
1988-89Â -Â February 4
1900-01Â -Â February 1
While it’s hard to say if we can make it to March 1, I personally hope we don’t, it does appear we will be in good contention to make it into the second spot for latest date of 1″ of snow accumulation for the season. A few other neat notes for the season thus far: December 2011 finished with only 0.1″ of snowfall which ranked Tied-14th for least amount in that month and was the least since December 2006 when there was no snow. January finished with 0.3″ of snowfall for the month which also ranked 14th for least amount in that month, it is the least amount of snow in January since 1992 (Trace). January didn’t just have a lack of snow, it had a lack of precipitation overall with only 0.06″ which ranks it as the 5th driest January on record. Just to throw something else at the lack of winter, January’s average temperature for Kansas City was 6.3 degrees above normal at 35.1 degrees.
Hope you enjoyed the first true update for the new website, let me know what you think!
Welcome to the New Severe Plains
6:32 am on February 1st, 2012
Categories: General Information
I’ve had this in the works for many, many months and finally decided to just pull the trigger on it and get it going. Welcome to the new website of SeverePlains.com
The site isn’t yet completely finished, and honestly who knows when it will ever be completely finished (I have plenty of other things going on to keep me busy). But, it’s a cleaner version, easier to update and upgrade if needed plus finally brings me into the world of using content-management rather then writing my websites with pure html/css code. My current goals for the website:
Photography section (new web galleries) available this summer -Â It’ll catch up on all of the weather and storm chasing images over the years, plus add in some galleries for friends and family to view other images.
Chasing section - This may be one of those things that never gets done, as much as I would like to finish it off. Would require a significant time contribution, but I may work on it here and there and slowly back fill it through the years. More than likely it is a never ending process…
Links section - Feel free to send me links to fill this section up. I’ve put some in their for a skeleton, but would be glad to add other pages including other chasers pages if requested.
Of course, the main page of the site (news/blog) will be filled up with posts here and there as I find something to write about. I’m going to try and make this a bit more personable, therefore it won’t always be about the weather or storm chasing. I may throw in an occasional sports feature, specifically on Iowa State or perhaps just football or basketball in general. Perhaps just some general news around my area too… Either way, hope you find some usefulness out of it.
New Addition – Keatyn Storm
2:46 pm on October 24th, 2011
Categories: Uncategorized
Another reason I’ve slacked off on the website, we welcomed a new addition to the family on September 22, 2011 with Keatyn Storm being born. Ironically it was not my idea for the middle name of Storm, rather that was my wonderful wife’s idea. Either way, here is one of the pictures I took as a part of his 1 month photo shoot we did at home.
October 12 Thunderstorm
5:02 pm on October 12th, 2011
Categories: Photography
I realize it has been a long while since my blog here had an update and I’ll explain more of that in the future, but for now here is a quick panoramic of a thunderstorm this afternoon just north/east of Gardner, KS:
Severe Weather – August 18, 2011
6:15 pm on August 19th, 2011
Categories: Severe Weather, Weather Recap
Several severe thunderstorms developed across eastern Nebraska, far southeast South Dakota and far western Iowa yesterday afternoon and evening. These thunderstorms made the trek southeastward through the evening and overnight, slowly expanding into a large bow echo as it moved south into eastern Kansas and western Missouri.
Many of the initial storms over Nebraska and Iowa featured the threat of very large hail with 3 separate reports of softball sized hail including one at Omaha Eppley Airfield which injured a pilot. At least one tornado occurred over Antelope county in northeast Nebraska, this storm was oriented to the west of the initial broken line of thunderstorms. It ingested a very unstable air mass with greater than 4000 J/kg of instability and utilized 45-55 knots of bulk shear and an increasing 0-1km shear of 15-25 knots to produce the only tornado of the day. As the storms began to congeal into what would become the bow echo the highest measured wind gust of the day occurred at Omaha Eppley Airfield as a 92 mph gust blew through at 7:30pm. The combination of very large hail and this extreme straight lines winds force the airport to shut down for a short period. Two composite radar images from 5:25pm (softball sized hail near Eppley) and 7:30pm (92 mph measured wind gust) are below respectively and you can see all of the reports from the Omaha NWS office here:
Severe Storms August 18, 2011 – Omaha NWS
The initial thunderstorm that produced softball sized hail in Omaha and Council Bluffs continued to trek southeast during the evening, arriving into northwest Missouri ~7pm. This storm moved into Nodaway County, including the cities of Clyde and Maryville where quarter to golf ball sized hail combined with straight line winds of 80-100 mph to cause extensive damage to areas around both of those cities and other surrounding ones as well. Below is a composite radar image from 7:30pm when the hail and significant damaging winds were occurring:
Reports of windows on both the north and west sides of at least 1 home and a church being destroyed were recieved, along with numerous trees and power poles down and at least 1 roof removed from a building along with other damaging buildings. You can see a few photos from Maryville along with a complete list of reports from the Kansas City NWS office here:
August 18, 2011 Damage – NWS Kansas City
The storms continued to travel south, even expanding both west and east of the Kansas City Metro as it bowed out into the city. Damage was reported in St. Joseph, MO as it ripped through, followed by multitudes of trees and power lines among other things being damaged throughout the Kansas City Metro. At one time at least 50,000 people were without electricity from KCP&L across the region, of which at least 8000 would remain without power for the remainder of the night. The two strongest wind reports from within the Kansas City metro occurred at approximately the same time, one from within the powerful storm near Roeland Park, KS and Prairie Village, KS areas and the other along the leading edge to the east of Spring Hill, KS. It was an estimated 80 mph wind gust near Roeland Park and Prairie Village that appeared to cause the most significant damage around the metro; while a measured 86 mph occurred from an automated station near 199th Street and Pflumm. Two snapshots of the radar from last night, at 10:35pm and 11:45pm respectively are below:
You can see all of the storm reports from the region along with archived radar imagery and warnings via the IEM Local Storm Report Application.
A Look Back at July
10:23 am on August 9th, 2011
Categories: General Information, Weather Recap
All of the records have been submitted for the month of July and it is no surprise that it preliminarily goes down as one of the warmest and driest ones on record for the Central Plains. I’m going to be taking a closer look at what Kansas and Missouri handled during the month of July and throw out a few statistics that were made available by NOAA.
Kansas experienced one of the warmest July’s on record, with the south-central section of the state actually recording the warmest July on record. Another 7 sections of the state were well above average with both high and low temperatures consistently coming in much warmer than the latest 1980-2010 climatological average. Only north-central Kansas came in at just above normal, rather than much above normal or record setting heat. Early month precipitation saved the state from having one of the driest months on record, with the latter half of July coming in with very little precipitation across most of the state. Northwest Kansas was able to actually remain above normal for precipitation in July, while most of southern, central and eastern portions of the state ending up near or below normal.
One interesting note, the south-central climate region which includes Kansas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Texas recorded its’ warmest month on record for any climate region with an average temperature of 86.1 degrees; this beat the previous record of 85.9 that was set in July 1980 by the same climate region.
What about Missouri? How did they stack up? Well all 8 climate sections of Missouri came in well above normal for the month of July, undoubtedly making it ones of the hottest July’s statewide. Precipitation also came in below normal for most of the state, with the northwest section the only portion remaining near normal for precipitation. See the maps for the entire United States below:
Keep Up To Date via Twitter
1:33 pm on August 8th, 2011
Categories: General Information
I have no doubt let the Blog go a little bit as of late, with the latest update coming over 3 weeks ago! It has been a very busy time this summer, enjoying time with my family and preparing for our new addition that will be coming in late September as well as spending time with friends and other family throughout the past few months.
Just because I haven’t put an official update on the blog doesn’t mean you can’t keep track of what is going on and get general updates on the weather around me. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @SeverePlains which has been a successful endeavor over the past few months.
As far as future plans, another detail I’ve been keeping busy with in the new Severe Plains website and blog that will come your way this Fall. I will continue to push updates to Twitter and will soon begin to dive into the world of Google+ on a regular basis; for those of you only on Facebook I have thought of beginning a specific page for SeverePlains however I am still doing some thinking regarding those details.
Hope you’re enjoying the summer too!
Relief Is On Its’ Way!
1:26 pm on July 22nd, 2011
Categories: General Forecast, Severe Weather, Weather Recap
The Kansas City Metro has had seven straight days with a temperature of 95 degrees or higher, with New Century Airport here by Gardner reporting temperatures of 97 degrees or higher (the past six days have been 99 degrees or higher). The heat has just continued over the Southern Plains, with areas of Oklahoma and Texas breaking records for consecutive days above 100 degrees (in some areas well over two weeks straight). This heat is now expanding eastward, pushing over the East Coast with temperatures into the 100s and records are already falling there as well. The latest record is the all-time record in Newark, NJ where they have reached 106 degrees already as of 2pm Eastern.
Relief is on the way for areas of the Northern Plains and some parts of the Central Plains as the upper level pattern changes slightly into a more zonal flow and a few upper level waves allow a cold front to move south into Kansas and Missouri late this weekend. Temperatures won’t decrease a lot, but the lower to mid 90s will certainly feel much cooler than the past week has. As warmer air returns by midweek the temperatures will rise back up into the mid to upper 90s for the Kansas City Metro, but those temperatures in reality are to be expected for late July.
Along with the heat has came dry conditions across quite a few areas of Kansas and Missouri, unfortunately even with the cold front widespread precipitation is not expected. Isolated to widely scattered thunderstorms are to be expected near and behind the cold front this weekend and perhaps into early next week for some areas.
In regards to severe weather, the Northern Plains season has been well underway for the past week as weak waves rode across the Dakotas, Minnesota and even southern Canada to provide beautifully slow-moving supercells and tornadoes. This regime will continue for at least the next two days with a moderate risk currently out for areas of far eastern Montana and the western Dakotas today; then another strong potential for severe weather (including tornadoes) tomorrow over central Minnesota into Wisconsin.
The Heat is On!!
4:05 pm on July 16th, 2011
Categories: General Forecast
Heat Advisories or Excessive Heat Warnings have been issued for nearly all of the central United States, stretching from the Dallas-Fort Worth area northward through Kansas City and St. Louis, through the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metro and clear to the Canadian border. Temperatures will soar into the 90s and 100s with dew points in the 70s leading to heat indices anywhere from 100-115 degrees. What can make these temperatures and heat indices worse? A prolonged period, at least 5-7 days in some areas of these temperatures and heat indices.
Wind speeds across most of these areas are not expected to be very strong, especially across the Central Plains, leading to little available relief during the afternoon. With mostly sunny skies and wind speeds less than 10 mph most surfaces will become very hot, one of those times where you’ll see the tar on the roads nearly become liquid! Stay cool… The first hint of relief may come by the weekend when at least a small trough will try to push into the Plains, however this feature currently isn’t expected to make much of an impact south of Nebraska/Iowa. This will be the feature to watch though, I’ll throw an update out mid-week or so for a progress report on when the heat may come to an end.
Kansas City NWS is comparing this heat wave to the ones in 1983 and 1987, in 1983 the heat wave lasted for two weeks while the 1987 heat wave lasted for one week.
Take a look at the maximum heat indices expected by the HPC over the upcoming week:
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| Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
Hot… Hot… Hot…
4:28 pm on July 10th, 2011
Categories: General Forecast
It is hot outside! That pretty much sums up the forecast for most areas along the Central Plains for today and tomorrow.. Temperatures ranging from 91 to 110 across areas of Kansas and Missouri this afternoon with an image below to show you where that hot spot is, centered near Wichita, KS. These hot conditions look to continue through the day tomorrow and even into Tuesday for most places with temperatures approaching 100 or higher in some locals, heat indices will push well above 100 and even up to 115 or more!
Heat advisories or Excessive Heat Warnings have been posted for nearly the entire states of Kansas and Missouri, with other neighboring states also getting in on the action too. I’ll throw in two more images below from the latest 20km NAM showing temperatures at 4pm central for both Monday and Tuesday. Along with these hot and humid conditions comes some bad air quality, with both Kansas City and St. Louis Metropolitan areas having air quality that is projected to be unhealthy for sensitive groups including elderly and children. Please watch your outdoor activities and keep cool!
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