Hello bloggers,
We have reached the last full day of summer! Who’s ready for it to get cold? We have just experienced an extremely rare end-of-summer heat wave. I’ll have to do some checking on this, but this may be the last heat wave Kansas City has seen since records began. Remember that a heat wave is defined as three consecutive days with 95° or more. It was 96° on Sunday, 99° on Monday and another 99° yesterday! All three were records, with the record having been broken by four degrees in the past two days!
Here is some great information from Hugh Crowther. He shared this with me a few days ago for September 19:
“Temperatures soar into the upper 90s in the Kansas City area, marking the second straight day of record-breaking heat. The high of 99 degrees at the international airport easily surpasses the previous record for the date of 95 degrees (set in 1931 and equaled in 1954), and is the third warmest reading on record for so late in the season. The temperature in Lawrence KS reaches 101 degrees. At the start of the day, a stationary front stretches from west-central Kansas to northeastern Kansas and northern Missouri. In the late morning it begins to lift northeastward as a warm front and, by the end of the day, lies over the west and south. southern Iowa.
East-moving mid-level clouds develop during the early morning hours from northeast Kansas to east-central Missouri but slowly dissipate after sunrise. Scattered high cirrus clouds move eastward across northern portions of the Kansas City area in the late afternoon and move into southern sections in the early evening. The winds are from the southwest sector in the early morning. The winds become light westerlies around sunrise, then light southerlies after sunrise. The winds are again blowing from the southwest in the late morning and afternoon, with brisk winds in the late afternoon. Winds are light from the south in the evening.
Winds average 9.6 mph for the day, with a peak wind of 16 mph from the southwest and a peak gust of 22 mph from the southwest, both in the late afternoon.
Morning lows in the Kansas City area range from 72 degrees at the National Weather Service Forecast Office in Pleasant Hill MO to 76 degrees at Kansas City Downtown Airport and Johnson County Executive Airport in Olathe KS . The low of 76 degrees at the downtown airport equals the record for that location, set in 2018. Afternoon highs in the Kansas City area are in the upper 90s, ranging from 97 degrees at 99 degrees.
The temperature in Saint Joseph MO rises from a low of 62 degrees to a high of 94 degrees. The mercury goes from 62 degrees at 7 a.m. to 86 degrees at noon.”
A cold front is heading our way:
7:00 a.m. Surface map
This 7 a.m. surface map above shows the cold front heading our way. Temperatures will warm into the 80s and 90s before this front, then winds will increase from the north. Some models have rain, while others leave us dry. We will be watching the radar closely and updating you with our precipitation forecast on news from KSHB41.
Precipitation forecast
It would be quite frustrating if this precipitation forecast comes true. This is from the NAM model showing 2″ of rain northwest of us and no rain east of KC. Chance of rain will increase later today and tonight through early Thursday with more air cold that will enter.
The tropics:
A possible American threat
Hurricane season has been quiet in the United States so far. Major Hurricane Fiona is quite strong and getting stronger. Fortunately this one will miss the USA. There is a system that was expected to threaten Florida and in our LRC forecast around the last third of September. Well, we believe that system that I have circled is that system. The Chiefs play in Tampa Bay for a week starting Sunday night, so we’ll be watching that closely as it could affect travel later next week.
Thank you for spending a few minutes of your day reading the weather blog and sharing this weather experience. Have a good Wednesday.
Gary
