Severe Storms Tonight

Things heated up a bit late this afternoon as a lone severe storm developed out by Dodge City. It intensified north of Pratt and produced a couple of reports of hail, both under 1" in diameter.

KWCH Storm Chaser Brandon Ivey was on the storm and provided these storm shots, along with live streaming video in our 5pm newscast. Additional live video and a phone report was filed in our 6pm show. Thanks to Brandon for a great job!

Brandon wasn't the only storm chaser out today. Lance Ferguson made it up to Mount Hope only to see the target storm fall apart. Drat!!

Storm Chaser Tony Laubach continues to wait for development in Goodland.

A severe thunderstorm watch continues for the areas west of Wichita until 11pm.

Storm chances on the rise

If you've watched our broadcasts lately, you know we've mentioned a chance of storms for Wednesday and Thursday. I don't see any change in that thinking today as a potent upper-level system has moved onshore into Oregon. By tomorrow, this system will intensify over the Rockies and give western Kansas a chance of boomers, most likely late in the day into early evening. If Wichita sees any storms, I think we'll wait until very late Wednesday night or more likely early Thursday morning. Another round is forecast for Thursday afternoon here.

If you're new to Kansas, severe weather is probably the last thing on your mind, especially with some of the cool nights we've had recently. But just like Spring, Fall is a transitional time of year, as we go from the heat of summer to the bitter cold of Winter.

Keep watching for later updates from Storm Team 12!

We're into Autumn

Holy funnel cakes Batman! Is it possible it's been a month since my last post? Sorry about that. Between the heavy rain event on September 8th and the Kansas State Fair, we're just now catching our breath...barely!

We've had some mighty cool mornings around here the past few days as lows have dipped down into the middle and upper 40s in Wichita with even some upper 30s this morning northwest of us!! If you are worried about freezing temperatures here, well the good news is that we don't have anything like that in our forecast over the next week. And as far as long-term averages are concerned, the average first freeze for Wichita is around the last week of October.

Of course, when is anything average here in Kansas?