1 February 2023
As of the lunchtime hour on this first day of February, sunshine dominates the scene across Kansas. As the center of the Arctic high pressure system that brought us our recent cold spell moves east of the plains, our winds have turned around to a southerly direction bringing us an increase in temperatures over what we saw the past 3 days. Lunchtime temperatures have warmed well into the 20s to lower 30s.
A light 5-15 mph southwest breeze is making it feel more like the teens and 20s, so definitely jacket weather.
Some high cloudiness associated with the nasty Winter storm to our south is spilling into Southern Kansas this afternoon but skies will still remain partly sunny while the rest of Kansas stays mostly sunny. Snow still covers most of northwest Kansas and some of north central Kansas but will continue to shrink the next several days as temperatures continue to warm.
Dangerous travel weather set-up continues to our south from Texas through Oklahoma and Arkansas over to Tennessee with a continuation of widespread sleet and icing. The precipitation is falling as freezing rain and sleet due to the shallow nature of the cold, Arctic air at the surface and milder, above freezing west southwest mid-level winds riding over the top of the sub-freezing air at the surface. Travelers going heading south from Kansas need to be weather aware and know that driving will be treacherous, especially from Arkansas and southern Oklahoma into northern Texas. This active weather persists through Thursday as another strong wave amplifies the ice to our south. We will keep getting clouds in the middle and upper levels of the atmosphere thrown our way through Thursday, especially over southern Kansas.
Even though we’re seeing a noticeable increase in temperatures, today’s highs will still run below average highs for early February around the state topping out in the upper 30s to lower 40s. Parts of far northern Kansas will have highs in the middle 30s with far southwest Kansas making it into the middle 40s.
Southerly winds will continue to bring warming to Kansas right through the upcoming weekend and into early next week with mainly dry conditions expected. We will see above-average temperatures returning tomorrow and Friday with well-above average temperatures reaching the 50s and even lower 60s by Sunday and Monday! Our average early February highs are in the lower-to-middle 40s.
Over the weekend there is a wind shift. This will bring in some more clouds Saturday but we look to stay dry. This wind shift has little impact on temps at all. Winds will be gustier by this weekend into next Monday, but not horrendous. Early next week, our next storm system will track through the Central High Plains. Rain and snow look likely from Monday night into next Tuesday. At this time, rain and snow amounts look light. We will watch this as it comes into better focus by the weekend. It is looking like we will dry back out by next Wednesday.
2/1/23 KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Meteorologist Jack Boston:
Wichita:
This afternoon: Partly cloudy. Hi: 39 Wind: S/SW 5-15
Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lo: 20 Wind: S/SW 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. Hi: 48 Wind: SW/NW 8-18
Tomorrow Night: Partly cloudy. Lo: 18 Wind: N/NE 8-18
Wichita Weekly
Fri: Hi: 49 Lo: 33 Partly cloudy, breezy.
Sat: Hi: 55 Lo: 28 Mostly cloudy, windy.
Sun: Hi: 58 Lo: 34 Partly cloudy, breezy.
Mon: Hi: 61 Lo: 32 Mostly cloudy, windy. 20% chance of rain.
Tue: Hi: 50 Lo: 27 Partly cloudy, windy. 10% chance of snow.
Wed: Hi: 48 Lo: 26 Partly to mostly cloudy.
Meteorologist Jack Boston