Area Forecast Discussion
Issued by NWS Wichita, KS
Issued by NWS Wichita, KS
Versions:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
693 FXUS63 KICT 150821 AFDICT Area Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Wichita KS 321 AM CDT Wed May 15 2024 .KEY MESSAGES... - Lingering storm chances this morning, followed by a round of potentially severe storms from late afternoon through tonight. - Trending hot for the weekend with temps in the upper 80s to 90 degrees. && .DISCUSSION... Issued at 250 AM CDT Wed May 15 2024 Morning convection continues to trek east while slowly trying to build to the south along an axis of 700mb warm moist advection. Storms will continue to access 500 J/kg MUCAPE and marginal shear. Shear will get slightly better toward dawn, but it appears storms will outrun the instability thus not be cause for much concern this morning. Can`t rule out a storm or two becoming strong with pea to dime sized hail early this morning. Otherwise, attention turns to this afternoon. Not much change to the going forecast for severe potential today. Convection will be possible along a cold front which is progged to extend from eastern Nebraska through Central KS and into the TX Pan. A sfc low is expected to set up near the OK Pan by mid afternoon, the best chance for convective initiation is in the vicinity of this feature SW of the CWA. Late afternoon into early evening this sfc low will start to shift closer to the CWA while attempting to sharpen a pseudo warm front across southern KS / the KS-OK state line. Again, convergence here is also looking rather bleak. Dew points into the low 60s will try and pool across southern KS. A nearly uncapped environment is expected with steep mid level lapse rates, 1500-3000 MLCAPE, and 50-60kts bulk shear. If a storm can get going early in the event in southern KS, damaging winds and hail will be the main concern, along with potential for storm splits given rather straight hodograph. Overall 3Cape looks minuscule, but if a storm can remain anchored along the boundary long enough a tornado would be possible. Right movers will be crawling moving east at only 8-14kts. Confidence on storms initiating early afternoon is low. The more likely scenario is storms will have an easier time initiating SW of the CWA and grow upscale and eventually develop into an MCS. The MCS would track east across southern KS/northern OK through the evening/night. Contrary to any right movers earlier in the day, the downshear corfidi vectors suggest MCS propagation could range from 60-70kts. In this scenario, damaging winds of 60-70mph would emerge as the main concern this evening. The SW corner of the CWA could see temperatures as warm as the mid and upper 80s by this afternoon, with the remainder of the area limited to the mid 70s. Tomorrow looks a little complicated, if there is enough recovery, there is potential for another sfc boundary to be draped across southern KS which could again be a focus for convection as a compact southern stream trough moves across Southern Plains. Storms that can form across southeast KS could be marginally severe. However, much of tomorrow`s activity will be highly dependent on this evening/tonights MCS propagation and resulting cold pool/outflow boundaries. Ridging will build in Friday shutting off any remaining showers and storms. Ridging looks to pan out over the area gaining confidence in the warming trend into the upper 80s and low 90s for the weekend. A Northern Plains trough will result in a cold front moving through the forecast area late Saturday with little fanfare. Zonal to slight ridging will remain overhead into the start of next week, meanwhile a more pronounced western trough will organize across the western CONUS. A few progressive/compact impulses will eject out of the developing western CONUS trough and move through the mean flow, resulting in continued light POPs in the forecast. && .AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z THURSDAY/... Issued at 1224 AM CDT Wed May 15 2024 An area of showers and isolated thunderstorms is moving into the KRSL and KGBD terminals at this time. The thunderstorm activity is rather isolated and short lived with this weak activity. As such, kept -SHRA as predominate used a TEMPO group for the TSRA. Do not feel the thunderstorm activity will amount to much. The rest of the TAF looks to be rather quiet with a chance for some isolated showers and thunderstorm in the KSLN, KHUT and KICT area towards the 12Z time frame. Confidence in this activity is very low and thus kept it out of the TAF for this TAF cycle. After 18Z, the chances for showers and thunderstorms will come around again. Areal coverage and intensity remain in question at this time. Currently, highest confidence in this occurrence is in the KHUT and KICT terminals at this time but too low for a predominate/TEMPO group. Thus used a PROB30 at these terminals where confidence is the highest. The remaining terminals also have a chance for shower and thunderstorm activity but confidence is too low for any particular hour to place in the TAF on this forecast cycle. && .ICT WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None. && $$ DISCUSSION...KMB AVIATION...ELM