21 March 2023
A few showers and even some rumbles of thunder pushed across the area overnight into early today triggered by the first surge of warm air into this first full day of Spring. The rain is leaving to the east now with some sunshine on the way this afternoon along with a gusty south wind and temperatures soaring into the 60s and 70s before the afternoon is done. A cold front in northwest Kansas is trying to push southeast but will not be able to push through Wichita and South Central Kansas. A shift to a north wind behind the front in Northwest Kansas will keep it a little cooler with highs in the upper 50s to low 60s.
A surge of warmer air tonight will bring more in the way of clouds and a late night shower possibility with gusty southerly winds continuing.
The clouds and wind will help to keep overnight temperatures relatively mild tonight with lows only dropping to the 40s to near 50 but 30s behind that front in the northwest part of the state.
Wednesday will be the warmest day of the year so far with highs soaring well into the 70s across Kansas and some places reaching near 80 degrees in the afternoon, but there will also be a strong a gusty south to southwest wind.
A High Wind Watch is in place for southwest Kansas from 1 PM through 8 PM Wednesday as strong southwest winds Wednesday will gust as high as 50 MPH.
The strong winds along with very warm temperatures and low humidity levels have also prompted the issuance of a Fire Weather Watch. We will need to monitor wind and fire concerns in the rest of Kansas on Wednesday as well.
An unsettled weather pattern also takes hold late this week. Another shot of moisture arrives Wednesday evening with that cold front producing rumbles of thunder and strong winds as the line tracks across northeast Kansas overnight. Rumbles of thunder and pockets of heavy downpours are possible with these storms.
Once storms enter northeast Kansas, they gain strength and could produce strong to severe storms as they get closer to the Kansas City metro area. A Marginal Risk for severe weather has been placed over northeast Kansas and most of northern Missouri.
Temperatures yo-yo for the second half of the week with temperatures bouncing between the 50s and 60s with off-and-on rain chances through the weekend, but not-to-worry as it will still be rain-free much of the time.
There will be time that the rain could mix with or even change to snow in portions of northern and western Kansas during the weekend.
3/21/23 KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Meteorologist Jack Boston:
Wichita:
This afternoon: Partly cloudy, windy. Hi: 70 Wind: S 10-25
Tonight: Mostly cloudy, breezy. 10% chance of rain. Lo: 50 Wind: SE/S 10-20
Tomorrow: Partly to mostly cloudy, windy. 10% chance of rain. Hi: 78 Wind: S 10-25
Tomorrow Night: Mostly cloudy, windy. 10% chance of rain. Lo: 50 Wind: S/W 10-25
Wichita Weekly
Thu: Hi: 66 Lo: 40 Mostly to partly cloudy, breezy. 10% chance of rain.
Fri: Hi: 56 Lo: 34 Partly cloudy, breezy. 10% chance of rain.
Sat: Hi: 63 Lo: 42 Partly cloudy, breezy. 10% chance of rain.
Sun: Hi: 58 Lo: 33 Partly cloudy, breezy. 20% chance of rain.
Mon: Hi: 56 Lo: 31 Partly cloudy, breezy.
Tue: Hi: 55 Lo: 33 Partly cloudy, breezy.
Meteorologist Jack Boston