Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

A Pacific storm is bringing areas of low elevation rain, moderate to heavy mountain snow, and high winds to the Northwest. Strong Santa Ana winds and very dry conditions are producing elevated to critical fire weather conditions in southern California. Isolated strong to severe thunderstorms are possible through early Wednesday morning across parts of northeast Texas into western Tennessee. Read More >

Overview

Arctic air spilled south across the Plains starting on Friday January 12th and lasting through January 16th. Windchills in the -20 to -30 range were common through this time period. In addition, 15 temperature records were broken across Central and Southeast Kansas.

6-10 day temperature outlook ahead of the cold outbreak.

Images and info

Images and info

Loop of surface pressure through the cold outbreak.

Watch/Warning Map from the morning of January 14th. Showing how expansive the wind chill warnings were.

Average temperature departure for Jan 12th - 17th


Wind Chills on the morning of the 13th	Wind Chills on the morning of the 14th	Wind Chills on the morning of the 15th	Wind Chills on the morning of the 16th

Additional facts

* The coldest wind chills recorded since the start of this cold snap: Wichita -24 Saturday evening, Salina -27 early this morning, Russell -34 early this morning, and Chanute -24 Saturday night. These were the coldest wind chills across the area since late Dec 2022.

*Wichita temperatures didn't get above 10 degrees Jan 13-15. This was only the 8th time since 1888 the city saw 3 or more consecutive days of temperatures 10 degrees or colder. The last time was Feb 2021.

* Salina temperatures didn't get above 10 degrees Jan 13-15. This was only the 8th time since 1900 the city saw 3 or more consecutive days of temperatures 10 degrees or colder. The last time was 1989!

* Russell temperatures didn't get above 10 degrees Jan 13-15. This was only the 6th time since 1949 the city saw 3 or more consecutive days of temperatures 10 degrees or colder. The last time was 1990!

* Frost depth in Wichita reached 12 inches, which matches the deepest since frost depth has been recorded(~2010)

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Storm Impacting the Northwest U.S.; Fire Weather Conditions in Southern California; Severe Weather in the South

January 2024 extreme cold!