KOAM TV 7 Joplin and PittsburgSaturday January 21st PM Blog

Saturday January 21st PM Blog

Good Saturday evening, everyone. Hopefully, everyone made it through this crazy week with temperatures all over the place from the 30s to the 50s...and back to the 30s... and then back to the 50s. Looking at the week ahead, we won't see a wide variation in temperatures. In fact, we'll see high temperatures come back to near normal temperatures by the middle of the week. I'm keeping an eye on a few systems that'll bring us rain chances for the week and I'm especially keeping an eye on next weekend... 

Current Radar:

Besides maybe a few showers trying to get going in western Kansas, we have nothing showing up in terms of rain or snow in our neck of the woods.  We'll have plenty of clouds building back in as we head through the night and some areas could see some patchy fog as southerly winds will start to bring some warm air and moisture back towards the Four States.

Heading into Sunday, we'll have a warm front lift back north to give us a warm-up well into the middle to upper 50s. If you escape the clouds tomorrow, lower 60s cannot be ruled out for our western counties... Then, the next cold front wants to move in during the afternoon. As a result of that, we'll see rain chances pick up across the area as depicted by the latest 18Z NAM model run below:

If we get enough cold air behind the front and if we have a little moisture left over, we could see this round of precipitation end as a little snow or rain/snow mix. Either way, this will not be a big deal as you head to work or school on Monday. Our next chance for rain will move in late Tuesday afternoon and stick around until Wednesday morning.

I know Doug has been talking with you all about when he thinks our best snow chances will move into the area. One of my resolutions this year is to learn about Doug's pattern and how he finds it so I can become a good long-range forecaster. For now, though, I will talk about the GFS picking up on one of the time periods that Doug thinks we could see a system bring some snow. The 7-day is picking up on the system giving us slight chances for rain to start on Saturday. However, the 18Z GFS wants to leave us with a little white coating as the system exits on the following Monday...

That's not the only system that could bring us a little snow as we head into the end of January and into February. Heading into the first weekend of February (2nd-4th), we could see another system move in and give us better chances for snow not only for the Four-Staes but for most of the state of Missouri...

Keep in mind that these accumulations are from model runs that are trying to depict an event that's still days away. However, if this holds up as we get closer to the first weekend of February, our Kansas counties and northern Missouri counties could see at least an inch of snow out of this particular system. This could all change, but this seems to line up with what Doug told me about the end of the month and February being our better chances to see some snow. In the meantime, take it easy and have a great night!

Nick 

Here is your latest 7-day forecast.

LONG RANGE FORECAST

Next Friday-Saturday:

Cool temperatures on Friday, but warming up a bit by Saturday.  We will see slight chances for rain by Saturday.

January 29th-February 4th:

A series of waves will affect us early in the week.  Rain chances on Sunday and Monday.  Then as colder air works in we will see rain and snow chances from Monday into Wednesday.  Then the colder temperatures stick around the rest of the week.  Another weak wave by Friday and Saturday with slight snow chances. 

February 5th-11th:

Our next storm system will give us chances for rain and snow early in the week.  Then temperatures will moderate a bit with a slight chance for rain towards the weekend.

February 12th-18th:

We will see a weekend storm system with slight chances for rain and snow over the weekend.  Then temperatures will slowly moderate with slight chances for rain or snow late in the week.