30 August 2023
High pressure from the southwest will be our major weather influencer the rest of the workweek and into most of the holiday weekend. The slow progression East allows temps to take baby steps toward the triple digits for many towns this weekend.
Quite a bit of haze from wildfire smoke is hovering in our air right now, reducing our air quality. Not the best for anybody with respiratory issues to be hanging outside. The haze will be noticeable with tonight’s sunset along with a different glow.
Overnight, expect a starry sky under the Blue Moon. The moon will not appear blue. However, since it is the second full moon of the month, it is given the name “Blue Moon.”
With the lack of humidity, temperatures will feel comfortable this evening and through the overnight.
With high pressure dominating the sky, no rainfall is expected until early next week with an approaching cold front. Under sunshiny skies, temps will climb to the upper 90s and lower 100s this weekend. The humidity does not look oppressive so the heat index will be near the actual air temperature. A drier heat if you will.
Winds become breezier first in western Kansas Thursday and spread through the rest of the state from west to east over the holiday weekend. Winds gust from 25-40 MPH during this stretch. Highest gusts will be focused west and north near 40 MPH.
With the flow from the south this will also enhance our warm-up. Humidity levels drop in western Kansas, but we may stay moist enough to avoid Fire Weather Warning headlines in the heat and increasing wind.
The cold front arrives for the northwest late on Labor Day. This will spark isolated rain and storms.
This could bring limited moisture farther East next Tuesday. Rain still not looking promising for us through mid-September.
Tracking the Tropics: Hurricane Idalia peaked as a Category 4 storm with winds at 130 MPH. It weakened by a few miles per hour to 125 as it made landfall this morning as a Category 3 hurricane. Land weakens this system to a tropical storm as it skirts the coast of the Carolinas into Thursday.
KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman:
Wichita:
Tonight: Mostly clear. Lo: 61 Wind: SE 5-15
Tomorrow: Mostly sunny, breezy. Hi: 92 Wind: SE/S 10-20
Tomorrow Night: Mostly clear. Lo: 64 Wind: S/SE 8-18
Wichita Weekly
Fri: Hi: 96 Lo: 66 Mostly sunny, breezy.
Sat: Hi: 98 Lo: 66 Mostly sunny, breezy.
Sun: Hi: 99 Lo: 69 Mostly sunny, breezy.
Mon: Hi: 100 Lo: 74 Mostly sunny, breezy.
Tue: Hi: 97 Lo: 67 Mostly sunny to partly cloudy, breezy. 10% chance of showers and storms.
Wed: Hi: 96 Lo: 68 Mostly sunny to partly cloudy, breezy.
–Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman