Severe Weather Conference

I attended the College of DuPage Severe Weather Symposium held from November 5-7 in Downers Grove, IL.

Some background: the College of DuPage has the longest running, organized storm chase class which just passed its twentieth chase season. Other courses offered at the college provide beginning students of meteorology a “leg up” by providing valuable hands on experience. The program is headed up by professor Paul Sirvakta. Paul is a genuinely nice guy and great facilitator which is why the program is such a success.

Many of you may know that Missouri State University offered a similar (at least logistically) chase class this past June ‘09. It is safe to say that the framework, it not the actual seed for the idea, came from the College of DuPage program.

You can read more about this and other severe weather topics at the website listed below.


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

Rain, Rain, Rain

Yesterday’s rain total for Springfield was logged at 1.72″ which is a record for that date, 10/29. This has pushed our October rain total to 9.97″ or 6.75″ above a normal October!

The heaviest rain areas occurred east and southeast of Springfield and included numerous 4″ plus totals and even a few over the 5″ mark.

The National Weather Service has a complete rainfall report here.

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

Late Week Storm

The story of the week is the approach of a powerful storm in the upper atmosphere, scheduled to arrive in the Thursday/Friday time frame.

The system is expected to "occlude" which means the most unstable air should stay south of the majority of the Ozarks. This should have the affect of keeping widespread severe thunderstorms either out of our area or possible south of Springfield in extreme southern Missouri or northern Arkansas.

Rainfall seems to be exploding more to our east and southeast as per the HPC rainfall forecast. Computer model forecasts for Springfield specifically are all over, ranging from only around .25" to well over 1.00". It seems as if areas most likely to skew to inches of rain would be areas to the south and southeast of Springfield.

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

Big Storm Late Week

The system hung up over the Ozarks Monday and Tuesday is wet but rather weak.

A much stronger weather system is taking shape for Thursday and Friday, one which will bring strong, possibly severe, storms to the Ozarks along with more heavy rain.

More on this developing storm on KOLR News at 5, 6 & 10 and Fox News @ Nine!


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

Coolest Has Ruled!

It's interesting to note that since July, every month has seen its average temperature below normal:

July: -4.3
August: -3.8
September: -2.2
October(through 25th): -7.6

I will talk more about these stats and also "reflect" on the unusual amount of rain and cloud days through this same period tonight at 5, 6 & 10 on KOLR and FOX News @ Nine!


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

Frost/Freeze Tonight

The clouds we've been wanting to get rid of will finally break rather quickly tonight allowing temperatures to plummet!

The center of the high where the calmest winds will be will pass over central Missouri tonight and this area is under the greatest risk for a sun-freezing low temperature. The rest of the area will likely experience a pretty good frost.

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

Winter Outlook

The government (NOAA) has issued a forecast for the winter season. This is an El Nino year which means the waters in the equatorial eastern Pacific are unusually warm.

Every El Nino is slightly different but generally speaking, the southern storm track becomes more active especially in the western and southeastern U.S. Dry and mild air occupies much and the central and northern U.S. The centers of dry/moist warm/cold are away from the Ozarks which means we are somewhat "El Nino Neutral" with no probability of a significant pattern shift.

It should be noted that our multi-month run of below normal temperatures and slightly wet conditions seems poised to continue. Except for a spurt of warmth this week (still mostly below the norm), the forecast for just about the rest of October is a cool one.

It might work out that our winter will see a progression of "dry" cool fronts with cooler but not bitterly cold air following and that every once in a while one of these fronts will hang up along with a slight change in the jet stream and spit out meaningful precipitation; the exact type a bit hard to pin down honestly.

The complete NOAA forecast link.


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