Another summertime front will work its way through the area, keeping us below normal this weekend. A few scattered storms are likely to pop up especially on Saturday. High temperatures will be in the upper eighties. Thanks to another mid-week front, ninety-degree highs are larger going to avoid the area for the next seven days and proabable a few days beyond!

Ted Keller
Senior Meteorologist
KOLR/KSFX-TV
Storm chasing and more at:
Ceaseless Wind

Cool and Wet Next Week?

The jet stream pattern which has provided us with slightly cooler summer and has chilled the northeastern U.S. looks as if it will be shifting more to the central U.S. next week. This means we will continue to see below normal temperatures and perhaps wetter conditions.

There is some evidence in the computer weather models that the shift will cause a front to stall somewhere in the central Great Plains during this period. This usually brings enhanced rainfall to areas along and north of the front. Since summer is a time of deeper moisture (high dew points) to the south of cool fronts, this can mean excessive rain is possible in this zone.

The 6-10 day outlooks issued by the Climate Prediction Center show the cooler temperature departure area in blue and the above average precipitation area in green. The current thinking is to set this front up more to our south be we in the Ozarks should be watching this for possible adjustment.

The whole stalled front episode will likely be followed by another cool shot which will send our lows into the fifties once again with highs only in the seventies.

Ted Keller
Senior Meteorologist
KOLR/KSFX-TV
Storm chasing and more at:
Ceaseless Wind

Rainfall Totals 7/21/2009

Rainfall estimated rainfall is shown ending at about 12:30 pm on 7/21/2009. Isolated storms Monday afternoon helped to boost the overall totals in areas around and southeast of Springfield. Eastern Kansas certainly received the heaviest rainfall as they were subjected to both storms and longer lasting rain periods.

The rain is beginning to exit slowly to the east today. Expect totals in areas to the far southeast of Springfield to end up with broad 1-2" totals before the precipitation ends.

Ted Keller

Senior Meteorologist

KOLR/KSFX-TV

Storm chasing and more at:
Ceaseless Wind

Flash Flood Watch Tonight

Flash flood watch posted for a portion of the Ozarks tonight.

Ted Keller

Senior Meteorologist

KOLR/KSFX-TV

Storm chasing and more at:
Ceaseless Wind

Velocity (Doppler) Example

Pictured is a mesocyclone with a tight circulation as revealed by looking at velocity data. Doppler radar "sees" if detected particles carried by the wind has any compontent along the beam itself. Greens are used for particles moving toward the radar while reds are away.

Therefore, a "couplet" as shown here implies strong cyclonic (counterclockwise) circulation. The radar beam comes in from Wichita from the WSW in this image.

FYI, the green triangle is a a software-driven symbol indicating a possible tornado. This is derived by looking at the entire volume of the storm for rotation. The tightest, most persistent and deepest areas of spin will be tagged in this fashion. This software is used extensively "behind the scenes" at KOLR and KSFX.

Ted Keller

Senior Meteorologist

KOLR/KSFX-TV

Storm chasing and more at:
Ceaseless Wind

Unsummer 2004!

The summer of 2004 was a cool one. Summer is officially defined as June, July and August and the temperatures for all three of those months were below normal that year:

• June 2004 -1.5
• July 2004 -4.0
• August 2004 -5.1

Anytime an average temperature is plus/minus 4.0 or more from the normal it is significant.

In addition, we broke four record lows that summer, three of which were in the forties, very chilly!

Records set in 2004:

• June 23rd, 49
• July 27th, 52
• August 13th, 47
• August 15th, 49

Heavy Rainfall Possible

The Ozarks finds itself in a flow of winds out of the northwest with imbedded weather systems producing areas of showers and storms. The map above is the Monday-Tuesday forecast of rainfall accumulation forecast by the HPC.


Flash flooding could occur locally but the area slated for the heavy rain is experiencing some of the driest weather over the past 30 days according to the Missouri Climate Center.



The rain should slide in this evening and overnight tonight and last through the first half of Tuesday. Temperatures will remain cool for the season through mid-week.