Forecasters see shift in seasons: Why Kansas City’s fall-like temps won’t last
Hit-and-miss rain will be possible for the Tuesday morning commute, but the showers and isolated thunderstorms are expected to end by midday, according to the National Weather Service.
Scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms may bring brief morning downpours to the metro before rain shifts east and ends.
A cold front is expected to speed through the area, bringing much cooler, more fall-like weather to the metro. Daytime temperatures are expected to be in the upper 60s to low 70s on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Overnight temperatures, however, will fall into the upper 40s on Tuesday night and the mid-50s on Wednesday night.
Temperatures will be in the mid-70s on Thursday, which is just a few degrees warmer than the typical 71 degrees for Kansas City in early October.
“The cool down doesn’t last very long,” the weather service said.
A large bump of high pressure will move over the central part of the U.S. midweek, allowing southerly winds to pump warm and moist air up from the Gulf. This will allow temperatures to climb back into the low to mid-80s by the end of the week and continue into the weekend.
There is the potential for a storm system to move across the area Sunday, dropping temperatures back to the upper 70s on Monday.
Signs hint at a seasonal shift
Forecasters are noticing early signs that the atmosphere is starting to behave more like fall than summer. As the seasons shift, the divide between tropical Gulf air and cooler Canadian air usually moves farther south across the United States, the weather service said.
In spring and fall, this results in winds high up in the atmosphere moving in waves, which can bring “large swings in temperatures from above to below normal,” the weather service said. It also brings chances for rain when the air masses clash.
The weather service also noted that at this time, long-range forecasts are less certain, as even small changes in the weather now could change what happens next week.
