Warmer Sunday, Colder and Wet Monday.

Sunday certainly looks to be the most pleasant day of the coming forecast cycle and will likely be the only day of the coming week that will be warmer than normal. In fact, the coming work week and into the weekend look to be downright chilly along with the potential for another round of wintry weather for Monday night into early Tuesday morning.

More about that in a moment, but first things first. Today will also be rather chilly although the winds will be light and somewhat variable in direction, eventually becoming more SE by the end of the day. The cold high pressure ridge sitting on top of us will be shifting on eastward and a rather potent storm system will be developing to the west and coming our way. Gusty SE winds ahead of this developing storm system and mostly sunny skies for much of Sunday will result in daytime highs well into the 50s and possibly even some low 60s by the end of the day. Make the most of it as the rest of the week will be much colder.

The exact track of this next system will determine how much wintry weather we end up with, but the way things currently stand we are in the running for some decent rain changing over to snow before it all ends Tuesday morning. Notice the QPF map on the right which is painting a bulls eye in KS but also giving us another decent shot of moisture. Monday will be cloudy with temperatures holding in the upper 30s to lower 40s for much of the day. Rain showers will likely be developing by late Sunday night continuing into the day Monday. Then as the storm system shifts eastward, our winds will shift to the NW, colder air will spill back over us and there will a transition to snow by Monday night ending by early Tuesday morning. Total amounts of wintry precipitation could be several inches for the more northern counties, but will await additional guidance before getting too excited about how much snow we may receive.

Since there remains a good bit of snow in KS from the previous storm, this next system will add to what they have on the ground along with the potential for at least some snow into northern OK. That will have a significant impact on temperatures for the coming week as our winds will be from a northerly direction with a rather long fetch across the snow pack just north of us. The national snow depth map which is the second one on the right is a little dated as we do not have much left on the ground around here, but does show the more significant snow pack just north of us.

Bottom line is with northerly winds expected all week long, look for temperatures to be much colder than would otherwise be the case. In fact, morning lows in the 20s and daytime highs only in the lower 40s are likely going into the coming weekend. We may also see a few flurries again along about the middle part of the week.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot