Tracking another warm day, evening storms Saturday
TONIGHT: Partly to mostly cloudy and breezy with lows in the mid-60s.
TOMORROW: Partly sunny and windy with gusts between 30-40 mph during the day. Highs in the lower 80s. Storms moving in before midnight could bring brief heavy rain and isolated strong wind gusts.
EXTENDED: It's been a windy end to the week with gusts up to 25 mph this afternoon along with our highs topping out in the 80s. Tomorrow looks similar with even stronger winds between 30-40 mph. Areas along Highway 65 are under a Wind Advisory between 10:00 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. where winds will be in the 45 mph range during the day. Highs reach the lower 80s during the day with cloud cover picking up. A few showers will try to get way ahead of the cold front out west by dinner time, but the main show stays west until late tomorrow night. A cold front will trigger storms late in the day into tomorrow night across eastern Kansas and western Missouri, bringing the threat of damaging winds and an isolated tornado in those locations. Despite the warm temperatures and strong wind shear over our area during the day tomorrow, the environment is expected to be severely lacking in instability to sustain severe storms. By the time storms arrive after 10:00 or 11:00, they'll start losing strength, but we'll still have the chance to see 40-50 mph winds and heavy downpours as storms work east overnight. The Storm Prediction Center has areas west of Highway 63 in a level 1 marginal risk for severe storms Saturday night, with the higher threat west of Mid-Missouri in a level 2 slight risk. Given the low risk for widespread severe, we will not be issuing a Weather Alert Day at this time, but if the front were to speed up a bit tomorrow, that could change early in the day, so stay aware of changing conditions. How long rain sticks around into Sunday will depend on the speed of the cold front moving southeast. The best chance of storms during the day into the evening Sunday will be along and ahead of the front that will be sliding south of Highway 54 by afternoon. That will allow areas north of the boundary to warm into the lower 70s during the day, while those closer to the front will remain in the upper 60s. Rain amounts look to range from 0.5" to 1". Next week looks quieter to start off with temperatures in the low to mid-60s without any rain until late in the week as temperatures begin to warm up.
