June 4, 2009 – 12:04 p.m.
Forecasters say the 2009 hurricane season is shaping up to be anywhere from ordinary to benign.
Why does this matter in landlocked Kansas? Because the remnants of hurricanes and tropical cyclones can reach the Sunflower State, depending on where they come ashore.
The record-setting rain that fell on Wichita last September came from what was left [...]
Maybe Mother Nature has turned shy, with so many eyes locked on the sky.
An almost unprecedented tranquility has descended upon Tornado Alley over the past week, even as a massive research project has been in position to study the development and lifespan of tornadoes and large thunderstorms on the Great Plains.
For only the second time [...]
March 25, 2009 – 1:03 p.m.
I hadn’t been to the family farm since Christmas, so when I went out there last week I wanted a first-hand look at what chores had been done – and what work still begged our attention.
Steve, my twin, had done a very good job of clearing brush down behind the shed along the creek that [...]
Aug. 13, 2008 – 4:22 p.m.
…but what Wichita has been experiencing is still a reflection of a classic weather pattern for the Great Plains this time of year.
“Typically this time of year, you get one of those ridges of high pressure that settles over the region,” said Andy Kleinsasser, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Wichita. “If something [...]
June 26, 2008 – 12:46 p.m.
So I was watching the Euro 2008 semifinal between Germany and Turkey late yesterday afternoon when – zap – the live coverage disappeared and ESPN suddenly began showing us crowd shots outside the stadium in Basel, Switzerland.
Lo and behold, a “freak storm” in Vienna, Austria, with winds clocked at 87 miles an hour and heavy [...]
….around dawn this morning over Wichita were an indication of the “low-level jet stream” that is in place over the Great Plains — a component that will be feeding the strong storms expected today.
I heard a couple of callers tell KFDI that this morning reminded them of April 26, 1991, which has become known as [...]
May 23, 2008 – 10:39 a.m.
…..today in Kansas, and it covers much the same area as Thursday. The Storm Prediction Center reports “another very favorable scenario for significant severe thunderstorms over parts of Nebraska, Kansas and Colorado, with the risk of strong tornadoes, very large hail and damaging winds.”
Preliminary reports collected by the Goodland branch of the National Weather Service [...]
No matter what their plans are for this holiday weekend, Kansans better factor in where they can seek shelter if strong storms or even tornadoes threaten. The Storm Prediction Center anticipates strong thunderstorms to be a threat over a large portion of the Great Plains for the next several days.
Kansas features prominently in the [...]
If forecasters sound particularly concerned today, there’s a reason: Greg Carbin, warning coordination meteorologist for the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the upper-level conditions today over southcentral and eastern Kansas echo the set-up on April 26, 1991.
That date should sound familiar to long-time residents of the area. That’s the day a huge tornado [...]
April 16, 2008 – 9:28 a.m.
The Storm Prediction Center of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has placed much of central Kansas under a slight risk for severe weather today.
The zone stretches from the Oklahoma border to just south of I-70, and from I-135 west to just west of Dodge City. Among the cities included in the elevated risk area [...]