The Weather Insider - KHAS-TV News 5

Give It A Couple Days

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Ξ February 28th, 2009 | Posted by Greg Tatro | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

I’ve heard my fair share of complaints over the last few days.  I guess it comes with the territory.  Sometimes the weather is like the news.  You don’t hear it when everything is going good, but as soon as there’s bad news it’s everywhere.  So the complaint department should dry up in about 2 or 3 days.  We’re looking at another cold day tomorrow.  It will be a little warmer Monday and much warmer by midweek.  Right now I’m forcastings mid 60’s for Wednesday and Thursday, but don’t surprised if many areas hit at least 70 on those days.  And we’ll see dry conditions for the next seven days.  Looking past that, we may see a bigger storm come in by early next week around Sunday or Monday.  We’ll have to keep an eye on that as it gets closer.  Forecast models tend to be pretty off past seven days out.

Back in the Saddle

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Ξ February 27th, 2009 | Posted by Greg Tatro | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

Well I took one day longer than I intended for my vacation because of some nasty flu bug going around Kansas.  It is a pretty bad one because I can still feel it today.  But I’m glad to be back and thrown into a snowstorm to end the week.  From the looks of it we could see some accumulations for areas mainly north of the interstate and especially areas north and east of Grand Island.  In the tri-cities we may see about 1-2 inches or so and we could see 3 inches for those areas north and east of GI.  Towards Ainsworth and O’Neill anywhere from 2-4 inches is possible.

It’s going to be a cold one too…highs only in the upper 10s and lower 20s.  After today though…we should have quiet conditions and continue to warm into next week.  20s on Saturday, 30s on Sunday, and into the 50s by Monday…all days are going to be mostly sunny.

Weather Update..Wed 11 pm

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Ξ February 25th, 2009 | Posted by John Walsh | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

Disturbance dropping out of Wyoming will be pulling up moisture through the night. Warm air overrunning cold will target extreme northeast Nebraska, from O’Neill to Norfolk as the favored area for freezing rain.
After 3 am, drizzle, fog and some rain will spread north of a warm front and linger until about noon. Clouds should break up as we head into the afternoon, but brisk northwest winds will continue through the evening. Temperatures will hold steadily in the upper 30s much of the day then dropping off to the low teens Thursday night.

Gotta Love It

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Ξ February 25th, 2009 | Posted by Travis Klanecky | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

What a great couple of days for the heartland.  Yesterday, some absolutely beautiful weather took over the area.  And we’re expecting another great day today before things turn south for tomorrow.

Working for Greg in the mornings is my favorite shift to work here at KHAS.  I feel there is more interaction with the people at home during our today show.  But because I wake up so early (2am), I usually need to take a nap when I get home in the afternoon.  I know that some of the others like to go to sleep early and get there rest in one long duration of sleep.  I’m more of a split shift person when I work this shift.  Well, I can blame the great weather of Tuesday for my lack of sleep last night.  And due to that, I may appear a little more tired today.  As much as I would love to nap this afternoon, it’s hard to pass up getting outside on a day like today with temperatures well above normal once again.  I guess there will be plenty of time to sleep by Thursday when the weather is windy and colder.

Updated Forecast/ Tues. 9:00

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Ξ February 24th, 2009 | Posted by John Walsh | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

  Some rain and thunderstorm have developed in southwestern Nebraska and is currently spreading into the Tri-Cities area.   An upper level disturbance, low level jet stream winds, along with warmer air pushing north are creating better defined conditions for active rain that forecast models earlier indicated.  
Rainshowers along with a few rumbles of thunder will track along the Platte River to highway 281 prior to midnight then dissapate.

Nothing on TV? Look to the Heavens

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Ξ February 23rd, 2009 | Posted by John Walsh | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

  As a weatherman I’ve always been accused of having my head in the clouds. But if your aspirations go a bit higher and are inclined to being a little starry eyed, then there may be something of interest that you might want to check out in the night sky tonight.
  At around midnight central time, Comet Lulin will be a stones throw away from planet Earth (about 38 million miles) and should be faintly visible in the southern sky. If your good at navigating your way around the heavens then look for it in the constellation Leo. There is an added bonus. Look for a moderately bright star. That is Saturn, likewise visible. If your looking south, Saturn will be just to the upper left of the comet by a few degrees, so you can use that as your guage.
  Comet Lulin will appear to the unaided eye as a fuzzy grey ball so for optimum viewing I’d suggest heading to a spot in the country away from city lights. Facing South look for it in the right quadrant of the sky.
  Lulin a cluster of gases and dust; a big ‘dirtly snowball’ travel throught the solar system at unfathomable speed. According to Dennis Bodewits, of the Goddard Space Center, Lulin is shedding about 800 gallons of water a second, enough to fill an Olympic sized pool in about 15 minutes. Solar radiation sends the icy grains away fromt he comet to produce a tail that extends roughly the distance from the earth to the moon. Fascinating stuff.
  Happy viewing. Temperatures will not be that bad…around 33 degrees at midnight. To read more about Lulin, check out the link.
www.nasa.gov

Update 9:00pm Friday

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Ξ February 20th, 2009 | Posted by John Walsh | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

Light snow dissapating as it approached Hastings. Light snow to flurries pushing east between Seward and Lincoln. Also flurries south of an Elwood to Holdrege line. Wind Advisory until 4 am.

Update 6 PM Friday

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Ξ February 20th, 2009 | Posted by John Walsh | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

  A fairly potent cold front has barreled through the Tri-Cities at about 4 o’clock with strong winds in its wake and a little snow on the way. Wind speeds will continue to meet advisory criteria of 30 to 35 mph with gusts above 40 mph through the evening. As pressures begin to rise shortly after midnight the winds will taper some, but will remain brisk overnight into the early part of the day Saturday.
Snow will be another element to this system. The heavier snow rates noted out in the Sandhills earlier today have weakened but we’ll likely see brief periods of wind driven snow tracking into Tri-Cities mid evening. Visibilities dropped to 3/4 of a mile in Broken Bow, and may continue to be briefly compromised at times this evening, though snow will not be heavy.
After midnight cloud cover will begin to break up with cooler than normal temps for the weekend.

Thinking About Severe Weather

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Ξ February 19th, 2009 | Posted by Greg Tatro | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

We are still in February but spring isn’t all that far away…about a month.  So it’s time to gear up for severe weather season.  Now most of us probably know that April-June is the biggest months for severe weather but it can start as early as March.  In fact as a kid all of 8 years old…I remember the Hesston tornado in Kansas forming just a bit north of my parents house in southern Kansas, it was the largest thunderstorm cloud I ever saw (up until I chased the Kearney tornado last year).  That storm produced an F5 tornado and that was in early March.  The first EF4 tornado ever recorded was around Kansas City and that was on February 28.  So yes we are not far away from having to switch from talking about snow to talking about stroms.

Every year the Hastings national weather service provides a storm spotter meeting for all the counties it serves.  I would encourage you to check it out as this year they will provide good information on what to look for in the storm itself plus what to look for on radar (good practice for us meteorologists too)…that way when John, Travis, or I break in with radar you will have a little bit better education on what to look for.  The meetings are free to the public and last about two hours…(but I was told you could leave early before the radar talk if you wanted to).  Here is the schedule so far.

Below is the spotter meetings for our folks in the North Platte National Weather Service area.

For Republic county Kansas (in the Topeka NWS area)…this is in February

And for our viewers in the Omaha NWS area.

Cooler Again

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Ξ February 18th, 2009 | Posted by Greg Tatro | → 0 Comments | ∇ Weather |

Well after a couple of snow melting days…a surge of cold air came through last night and we are feeling it now.  The northwest winds are coming in at about 20-30 mph and morning temps have been hovering in the 20s.  We did pick up a trace of rain last night and as of 9:00 we are starting to see possibly some flurries in the western parts of the state.  We will probably not see any of that but the clouds should hang around through most of the day.  It will be a much cooler afternoon with highs in the mid 30s.  A layer of warmer air comes in tomorrow and we should see more sunshine and have highs in the 40s.