Warm Air Moving North; sort of
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Weather Underground surface temperatures plot at 2pm CST today shows surge of warm air in the 60s in Kansas.
What a difference a few hundred snow covered miles can make.
I saw 47 in Kansas City this afternoon. It hit 63 in Liberal, Kansas today.
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As arctic air reluctantly begins to release its icy grip from Minnesota, warmer air is slowly filtering in from the south. Look for a moderating trend by tomorrow afternoon. We should warm into at least the mid 20s.
This will be one of those nights when temperatures buck the usual overnight trend of falling until 8 am or so. There should be enough warm air spilling north, what meteorologists call "warm advection" to keep temperatures nearly steady overnight.
We can dream of that warm air coming north into Minnesota, but the reality is most of it won't get here. The main reason is our dense snow cover to the south. As the warmer air slides north, contact with the icy snow cover will modify the air mass chilling it down.
It is interesting to watch surface maps, and how semi-stationary "warm fronts' deveop on the southern edge of snow cover. The warm air slides north, but the "warm fronts" don't really move north at all. Surface winds even shift to the southeast on the north side of these fronts. The air mass essentially forms a stationary boundary at the edge of the snow pack.
Enjoy the milder trend the next few days. The forecast models are still wavering between near average to arctic air masses next week.
Stay tuned.
PH