EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING is in effect
Good morning bloggers,
A very hot weather pattern will continue until further notice. The hottest temperatures will be reached if there are no clouds and the least likely day for clouds will arrive next week as the huge anticyclone comes right overhead. Today, we have a few clouds, but they will dissipate in the next couple of hours. A very weak front will be approaching the area on Thursday and just ahead of this front will be some compressional heating allowing for maximizing of temperatures. So, again if there are no clouds Thursday we could jump to above 105° and possibly approach 110° in some spots. The weak front will move through providing some slight cooling Friday into Saturday before the upper high builds right over us this weekend.
Thinking of rain chances? There is decent chance that a few thunderstorms will form during the next 24 to 36 hours, but they will be somewhat isolated. We will go over the details of this possibility and we will be tracking the developing anticyclone and showing the weak front approaching on 41 Action News today and tonight.
Today is day five of the current heat wave. Heat Wave #2 of 2012:
- Saturday, July 14: 97°
- Sunday, July 15: 98°
- Monday, July 16: 97°
- Tuesday, July 17: 100°
- Wednesday, July 18: 105?
Kansas City has had only seven days in recorded weather history that have had a high temperature of 110° or higher. The last time it hit 110° was in 1954:
- 113° was the hottest temperature ever recorded on August 14, 1936
- 112° was the second hottest temperature ever recorded on July 13, 1954
- 111° was reached on July 14th and July 18th in 1954
- 110° was reached on August 13th and 15th in 1936, and July 24, 1934
I found this satellite picture from 8:45 PM last night. And, the sun likely was setting behind a cumulonimbus cloud over far western Kansas:
Please check on your neighbors and make sure air conditioners are working. Check on the elderly and try to take your dogs for walks early in the day. This is a dangerous heat wave that is growing in strength. Thank you for spending a few minutes on the Action Weather Blog. Let us know if you have any questions or comments.
Gary
Just a reminder that No one is telling me to put up anything and that all posts on here are one and the same by yours truly.
Gary, in the case where an anti-cyclone is the dominating force that dictates the summer climate, would it be a safe assumption to conclude an equally harsh winter season is in store? Or, with the the long term lack of parcipitation being an ever present factor, the winter season is shaping up to be as lackluster as our last winter? What does your LRC indicate?
I’d like to know this too. I know that it’s still too early to call but I’m looking for some hope. I want ice storms and blizzards. I know most people would rather have 110 degree weather all year around than a hard cold winter, but I’m a cloudy cold weather kind of person. This heat is bringing me down!
The winter pattern, for next winter, is not related to this pattern at all, according to the LRC. But, this pattern is related directly to the past winter. So, there is a lot of hope for a much better weather pattern for us weather enthusiasts beginning in October. The pressure will be on, no pun intended.
Gary
Gary said: “Take a look at the sunset tonight from our American Century Investments Skyview. Is that smoke on the horizon, or a distant thunderstorm. I believe it is a distant thunderstorm in Colorado as the sun was setting.”
You think that is a thunderstorm, visible from 500 miles away?
It depends how high the camera is, in part. But my guess is that would only be possible if the height on the thunderstorm was massive, which I would think to be less common this time of year and in this setup. If the top of a thunderstorm was at 60,000 feet, theoretically it could be visible from the ground from 600 miles away, presuming no interference from atmospheric effects. (Assuming the earth curves at around 8 inches per mile.)
I found a satellite picture that shows the likely CB (Cumulonimbus) cloud. I just posted it on the blog. It was over far western Kansas.
That is not the direction of sunset in July. You should be looking further north, perhaps in south central Nebraska.
It was definitely looking west northwest, but not that far northwest.
Jerry,
We can see anvils from Colorado thunderstorms all of the time. But, I am still not certain about this feature. I know there were no thunderstorms over central Kansas at 8:45 PM. What do you think?
Good satellite photo to correspond to the camera shot – very cool.
I’ve seen anvils from great distances before – the massive, drawn-out wispy Ci that spread for hundreds of miles over the top of an updraft…and I’ve seen those from great distances (like the one in North-central NE in your satellite photo) – I just never thought we’d be able to see the stout detail of a Cb from Colorado here in Kansas (or Missouri).
Where is that camera located?
Our camera is on the top of the American Century Investments building on the Plaza. It is a very good camera. I zoomed all the way in at sunset and was surprised to see the detail in the clouds that far out. I did at first think it was smoke, but it is definitely a cumulonimbus cloud over western Kansas.
Thunderstorm in Colorado…is that possible to see from here, especially with that kind of clarity?
When will this end? When will we see “normal” temps ? Will this extreme heat continue into August? I am ready for this extreme heat to go away. This has been a very long summer due to this heat.
Megan
Other than looking at a radar replay from western KS, or eastern CO…its hard to believe it was a storm.
Gary, I hate to say this…and as much as I enjoy the blog…and obviously this pattern is out of your control but I’m about to the point in skipping the blog until there is some kind of change or hope that we will see some rain and cooler temps…you could pratically post the same blog probably for the next several weeks as there is absolutely nothing encouraging or positive about reading and hearing about this extreme heat and drought day and day out.
Jeff,
Maybe I should sleep in for a change instead of writing the blog early in the day.
Do you have a VIS image from last night?
I just checked, and it was too dark at 8:45 PM for the visible shot, but the hour earlier had some penetrating tops through the anvils way out there.
Cool, I never would have guessed you could see storms from this distance
Gary, hope you didn’t take my comment seriously..just being sarcastic…this pattern is so discouaging and I’m sure boring for you too, with nothing much to report, other than heat and drought. I see the St Louis area has a 40% chance of storms…maybe we should all move to the east side of the state line!!! LOL!
Jeff,
We may have a chance of a thunderstorm tonight or Thursday as well. I just want to see some evidence first. There were a few morning clouds and building altocumulus, or high based cumulus earlier this morning. As the weak front approaches a slight chance of thunderstorms has to arrive. We will go over these details on 41 Action News. And, I was just kidding too.
It’s not at all uncommon to see thunderstorms from a far distance. More so in spring, but with a well trained eye you can see storm clouds hundreds of miles away any time of the year.
Back May 22nd 2011 I remember seeing the storm that produced the EF5 tornado in Joplin from the watch tower in Shawnee Mission Park. Pretty much right at the same time it was devistating Joplin – just by looking at the cloud formation of the “tail end Charlie” that was the supercell going through Joplin, you could tell that storm was doing something big.
The location of the sunset varies greatly throughout the year, and since we are still close to the solstice in late June, the sunset azimuth for yesterday in K.C. was 298 degrees. True northwest is 315 degrees and West-northwest is 292 degrees, so plot a line slightly above West-northwest with Kansas city as the starting point on the map. Your line will intersect one of the three clouds in south central Nebraska.
You can find sunrise and sunset info for various days and locations here:
http://www.sunearthtools.com/dp/tools/pos_sun.php
Eric,
Great math! Thank you. This makes sense.
Alternatively, look at the KU Med Center building in the foreground of the sunset picture. That building is at the corner of Cambridge St and Olathe Blvd. From Google Earth or Maps or Bing or whatever satellite picture site you prefer, draw a line from the American Century Towers to the KU Med Center. That line is 298 degrees, showing you the direction you need to keep going to find the cloud in front of the sunset. It’s south central Neb.
Your next blog entry should read “Nothing has changed!” Then you could sleep in and at the rate we are going….sleep in all through August cause I am sure it will be the same then too!
I will take snow and below zero anyway over this. Grr! Next year I am plating cactuses and rose moss only!
Very funny! But, watch, there will be thunderstorms in the morning leaving us frustrated when we don’t get one of them.
Gary
Cotacat… are you going to be OK? I am seriously beginning to worry about you.. Yes there is a very good chance this heat is going to last through August and into September.. this is summer and this is the pattern we are in this year. Do you have to be outside much? Can you stay inside and try to concentrate on pleasant thoughts or something to take your mind off this heat? This heat IS very stressful to many people.. I don’t like it either but what can you do? It is was it is and only “Mother Nature” can change it so we just have to find ways to deal with it the best that we can. I love being outdoors but hate high heat so I get outside as much as I can in the mornings while it’s still bearable so I don’t go stir-crazy in the afternoons.. I close my blinds, turn off the lights and try and keep the house as cool as possible and try not to think about the heat.. Hang in there… it WILL end eventually and then we can all say we ( hopefully ) survived the summer of 2012.. it will be something we can tell our grandkids.. lol!
The location of the sunset varies greatly throughout the year, and since we are still close to the solstice in late June, the sunset azimuth for yesterday in K.C. was 298 degrees. True northwest is 315 degrees and West-northwest is 292 degrees, so plot a line slightly above West-northwest with Kansas city as the starting point on the map. Your line will intersect one of the three clouds in south central Nebraska.
You can find sunrise and sunset info for various days and locations at sunearthtools website.
No way that cloud is in Colorado. Curvature of the earth is too great to see a storm from 400+ miles away. The clouds in western KS on the sat. pic are a full 100 miles closer than the CO border. I think “curiosity” has it with his Nebraska assessment.
Curiosity you are correct the sunset would have been shining through the south central Nebraska clouds. This shot of radar shows the location of the sunset. “http://s19.postimage.org/e3cupz5ab/EAX_Sunset.png”
I was just about to post an image of the radar sunset spike – thank you for doing this…what a fantastic tool. Clearly demonstrates the clouds photographed in the ACI skyview were in NE rather than KS or CO.
It was a lot easier than figuring out all that math that curiosity was throwing out.
I have a question that you may have answered but I missed it. Why is the wind blowing? If this is such a huge powerful High there shouldn’t be any wind. Wind normally blows when there is a low and is calm under a high.
There is a weak pressure gradient. The wind is barely blowing and will be rather light the next few days.
Gary
Moved to Reno, NV from Overland Park last year. The summer in Reno has been normal tnis year. Temps avg in the high 80′s low 90′s everyday with very low humidity. I can’t tell you how much difference there is when the humidity is low. Even whenthe temps go into the high 90′s, it still feels comfortable.. Take care and just think autumn is only 2 months away,
I came across a brown praying mantis today and thought to myself, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a brown one before. I decided to research it a bit and found out they are green when moisture is plentiful and brown when its dry and arid. Have any of you ever seen a brown praying mantis before?
Looking forward to the 19 mile bike ride from work this afternoon. Gatorade and Thermotabs.