Severe Storms will be the main concern over the next 24hours as a vigrous upper level system ejects out of the SW and interacts with the warm, moist, unstable air.  This feature will begeing to spark thunderstorms Friday night into Saturday and Saturday Night. There is a good chance that the storms that develope will become severe. There is also a chance for a small tornado outbreak to unfold. In the previous blog it shows the risk of severe weather for tomorrow. That will be updated tomorrow morning by the NWS.

On another note temperatures will continue to be very warm throughout the next several days with highs approaching 80 degrees Sunday through Tuesday. Enjoy the weather while it last because more near normal temperatures in the 60's are on tap for the end of this upcomming work week.

The forecast information was provided by the NWS.

  We could be looking at a possible tornado outbreak. This graphic shows what the SPC is thinking for tomorrow.  They may upgrade it to a moderate risk.

 Meteorology 101...Ingredients for Thunderstorms

         Thunderstorms! Aren't they great! What drives a Thunderstorm? In other words what ingredients are neccesary to build one. 1st you need warm humid air, then a source of lift like an old frontal boundary. These would give you a garden variety type storm with some lighting, gusty winds and quick heavy rains. For stronger storms add in an upper level disturbance and cool air invading from the rocky mountains. Let's also mix in dry air from the southwest with a strong jetstream blast. These conditions properly mixed together give you your tornadoes and severe weather outbreaks. Thank goodness this dosen't happen to often.  These conditions mix together the most over the central US and that's why this part of the country has the most tornadoes and ir rightful called "Tornado Alley".

It appears that spring time temperatures are probably here to stay and thats good. Tough there will be a few more freezes to contened with until the 1st or 2nd week in april. I was looking at the long range models about 13 to 14 days out and what i see is incredible. It looks like a massive storm system will be crossing the county igniting a severe weather outbreak from Texas all the way into Iowas and Southern Minnesota! Now this is a long long way out. 2 weeks or better but its something to watch. It does appear that there will be plenty of warm air around so will see. If the models stick with this we could see this outnreak sometime between the 23-25 of March. Noaa should issue an experimental thunderstorm graphic on it in about a week if they thingk it will be something of concern. Right now there is only speculation from me. The weather pattern across much of the middle of the contry is in a lul and boring, but things should stary heating up as we get close to the end of march into april and may. Here are the graphice of the potential weather i talkeda bout.

March 24th, 2007


Also March 24, 2007

Well here in Kansas i took a snow day even know it wasnt really a snow day. Our power was out and I was in no mood to go to school!

Severe Weather----It was rough from southeastern Kansas all the way to the gulf coast theses past couple days. I feel really terrible for all those families who lost loved ones in theses storms and for the community of enterprise, AL. I really feel for yall.  In NE Kansas we did get about a 2" snow but that has alll melted away with the high march sun angle.

Brad's 4cast for Ft. Riley---excpect cool weather to stay entrenched in the regeion throughout the weekend with highs in the low to mid 40's. Next Week brings a  warm-up with highs in the 50's on monday, 60's tuesday-through the rest of next work week. Not terrible cold with lows in the 20's tonight then 30's to near 40 for the rest of the extended period.  Showers may move in by next weekend. (march 8,9, or 10th) still way far out and doesnt look to be muxhof a big deal.

Sorry for this really bad blog entry and the sketchiness of it but i am tired and i am going to bed. night yall!

-Brad

    Alright a slight warm up is in store for Wednesday. Then a cold fornt moves through Wed Night and gives us a chance to see some accumulating snow Wed. Night through Thursday Morning. Right now I am saying 1-3inches. YUK! Severe weather won't be an issue on Wednesday but dont be surprised to here a rumble of thiunder. I wish it would just warm-up!! This forecast information was provided by the NWS.

Have a good hump day everyone!

    Alright, Lets take to of my favorite states and compare there extremes in terms of weather of course!

On the Right all the way from               On the left from the south and the home of
Mid-America and Tornado                  country music we have......
Alley we have.....

KANSAS                                          TENNEESSEE 

121 Degrees July 24, 1936       -Record Highest Temp-    113 Degrees August 9, 1930

-40 Degrees February 14, 1905  -Record Lowest Temp-   -32 Degrees December 30, 1917

source: Time Almanac 2005

The enhanced Fujita Scale was fist introduced in February 2006. It is currently the way we rate Tornadoes in the US. It's basicaly a revised Fujita Scale. It was determined that the amount of damage durring a tornado can be caused by lower wind speeds. They dropped the wind speeds but categories 0-5 still exsits. Here is the chart below. source: www.wikipedia.org

..>..>

Category EF0	Wind speed	65–85 mph	105–137 km/h
	Potential damage	EF0 damage example Light damage. Peels surface off some roofs; some damage to gutters or siding; branches broken off trees; shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
Category EF1	Wind speed	86–110 mph	138–178 km/h
	Potential damage	EF1 damage example Moderate damage. Roofs severely stripped; mobile homes overturned or badly damaged; loss of exterior doors; windows and other glass broken.
Category EF2	Wind speed	111–135 mph	179–218 km/h
	Potential damage	EF2 damage example Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-constructed houses; foundations of frame homes shifted; mobile homes completely destroyed; large trees snapped or uprooted; light-object missiles generated; cars lifted off ground.
Category EF3	Wind speed	136–165 mph	219–266 km/h
	Potential damage	EF3 damage example Severe damage. Entire stories of well-constructed houses destroyed; severe damage to large buildings such as shopping malls; trains overturned; trees debarked; heavy cars lifted off the ground and thrown; structures with weak foundations blown away some distance.
Category EF4	Wind speed	166–200 mph	267–322 km/h
	Potential damage	EF4 damage example Devastating damage. Well-constructed houses and whole frame houses completely leveled; cars thrown and small missiles generated.
Category EF5	Wind speed	>200 mph	>322 km/h
	Potential damage	EF5 damage example. Incredible damage. Strong frame houses leveled off foundations and swept away; automobile-sized missiles fly through the air in excess of 100 m (109 yd); high-rise buildings have significant structural deformation; incredible phenomena will occur.

Top 25 Windiest Cities in the US

Look at all these windy cities! The avg. annual wind speed is in mph to the right of the city. Notice how Chicago, "the windy city" didnt even break the top 25, but a lot of cities in the plains and mountain/ocean regeions of the US did. Enjoy. Information provided by NOAA.

MT. WASHINGTON, NH                        35.1

ST. PAUL ISLAND, AK                          16.9

COLD BAY,AK                                        16.8

BLUE HILL, MA                                      15.2

DODGE CITY, KS                                  13.9

AMARILLO, TX                                       13.5

BARTER ISLAND, AK                          13.2

CHEYENNE, WY                                  12.9

KAHULUI, HI                                         12.8

ROCHESTER, MN                               12.8

CASPER, WY                                        12.7

KOTZEBUE, AK                                    12.7

BETHEL, AK                                         12.5

GOODLAND, KS                                  12.5

GREAT FALLS, MT                              12.5

LIHUE, HI                                              12.5

BOSTON, MA                                        12.4

LUBBOCK, TX                                      12.4

CLAYTON, NM                                     12.2

FARGO, ND                                         12.2

NEW YORK (LAGUARDIA AP),NY   12.2

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK                       12.2

WICHITA, KS                                      12.2

BARROW, AK                                     12.0

CORPUS CHRISTI, TX                    12.0