20 January 2024
Arctic air has locked into place with dangerously cold wind chills lingering for another day. This colder snap will be brief and will depart starting Saturday night.
Temperatures over the next 24 will remain below freezing with lows Saturday morning ranging from the single digits to subzero levels.
Wind chills to -20 degrees are possible early Saturday which is why a Wind Chill Advisory is posted.
There will be a mix of sun and clouds Saturday with afternoon temps warming a few more degrees.
Southerly winds ramp up first out west Saturday night. Winds will gust into Sunday from 35 to 45 MPH and spread east across the rest of the state. Even though temps will warm above freezing, it will feel cold due to these stronger wind gusts.
Clouds will increase into Monday as the first system of next week skirts our region. We will need to watch the Monday morning commute from Wichita to Emporia for the potential of freezing rain.
Temperatures south of us are warmer and as this rain rides over the departing colder air, we may have a few hours Monday morning where freezing rain is a possibility. This includes the Wichita Metro. Temperatures look to hover from the upper 20s to the lower 30s Sunday night into the Monday morning rush. A one degree shift can drastically change things. If moisture is delayed or we do not cool too much overnight into Monday, that would be good and keep slick spots to a minimum. Something to watch as we nail down the timing of the rain and where temperatures sit at the surface.
Temperatures will then warm Monday afternoon with highs next week ranging from the 30s to the 40s. It will be chillier farther north especially where snow has been slow to erode.
There is another system that is much more fruitful for moisture next Wednesday into Thursday. Temperatures will warm enough to keep this mainly as rain. There may be some snow that mixes in farther north and west depending on track and timing of the precipitation. Snowfall potential looks light. Rainfall looks heaviest across southeast Kansas where more than an inch of rain may fall.
There is not much cold air to work with this system while it is in progress for us and after it departs. Models are hinting at temperatures out west inching closer to 60 by the end of next weekend! The pendulum is swinging the opposite way into late January and early February after battling stretches of bitter Arctic air this month.
KSN Storm Track 3 Forecast from Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman:
Wichita:
Tonight: Partly cloudy. Lo: 4 Wind: NW/NE 5-15
Tomorrow: Partly cloudy. Hi: 20 Wind: NE/SE 5-15
Tomorrow night: Partly cloudy. Lo: 15 Wind: SE 8-18
Wichita Weekly
Sun: Hi: 37 Lo: 28 Partly to mostly cloudy, windy.
Mon: Hi: 38 Lo: 33 Mostly cloudy, breezy. 20% chance of rain.
Tue: Hi: 42 Lo: 34 Mostly cloudy. 10% chance of rain.
Wed: Hi: 45 Lo: 33 Mostly cloudy. 30% chance of rain.
Thu: Hi: 46 Lo: 33 Mostly cloudy. 10% chance of rain.
Fri: Hi: 47 Lo: 34 Mostly cloudy.
–Chief Meteorologist Lisa Teachman