KOAM TV 7 Joplin and PittsburgSaturday PM November 5, 2011

Saturday PM November 5, 2011

Good evening, everyone. Did ANYONE feel any rumbles from the earthquake last night?! Even though it felt like a little shake at my apartment, that came out of nowhere and kind of spooked me a little bit. It turns out that it was a 4.7 quake near Prague, OK with a few aftershocks a few hours after the main quake.

Other than that surprise, today was fairly quiet except for the winds screaming out of the south at 15-20 mph with the occasional gust to 25 mph. As far as rain goes, our chances are zilch for tonight. However, the next chances for rain and thunderstorms aren't far away.

Current Radar:

 Clouds have already begun to filter into the area and the skies will stay partly cloudy heading into Sunday morning with lows in the lower 50s. The clouds will be moving along and ahead of the next frontal system creeping in from the west...

The front wants to make a complete push through the area tomorrow, but it'll stall out to our northwest and stick around the area through Tuesday night. I'd say 80% of your Sunday will be partly sunny but quiet, but Sunday night and Monday will start to bring in the better chances for showers and thunderstorms. Ahead of the front, we'll still manage to make it into the middle 60s for afternoon highs.

However, I'm keeping an eye on late Monday night and into Tuesday because not only do I think we have the potential to see some strong and POSSIBLY severe storms, but so does the Storm Prediction Center.

The good news is that the threat area for Tuesday no longer covers the Joplin area as it did yesterday. If the models and our thinking continue to shift this area further to the east away from the Four State Area, our chances for a few severe storms will continue to drop. I'm keeping my eyes on this since this system is still a few days out and quite a bit can change before we reach Monday and Tuesday.

Luckily, once the system pushes out late Tuesday and early Wednesday, skies will clear and stay quiet heading into next weekend with temperatures on Wednesday a bit chilly with highs in the lower 50s. However, southerly winds will kick back in eventually and warm us up back into the 60s by Friday.

Nick

Here is your latest 7-day forecast.

The latest on the long-range forecast and the Snowflake Contest:

The Snowflake Contest

Can you guess when the first inch of snow will occur at the Joplin airport.  The winner gets a 32" Sony flat screen HDTV TV.  Promotions director Vance Lewis worked hard to get you a great price this years.  I am posting the rules below, make sure you follow them or your guess won't count.  Send my your guess by a Facebook message or to my email at dheady@koamtv.com

You need to send me the date of your guess, the time of day.  The reason I need the time of day is because there will most likely be more than one person who guesses the winning day.  Also I need a contact number.  The deadline is 12am November 10th.  Get those guesses in.  

Doug

 LONG RANGE FORECAST

November 6th-12th:

A mild start to the week, but we will have a system around that could give us showers and a few thunderstorms on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.  Then another wave will push in with additional rain chances Thursday through Saturday.

Severe threat:  Slight (Tuesday) 

November 13th-19th:

A mild start to the week with rain chances early in the week.  Another wave with colder temperatures and precip chances late in the week.  Cold temperatures for the weekend.

Severe threat:  None

November 20th-26th:

Cold start to the week, but warming up by the holiday with rain chances.  Precip chances will continue through the holiday weekend.

Severe threat:  None