Travel time on our minds

Many folks will hit the road during the next week as the Christmas holiday draws near. Of course, everyone wants to know if the weather is going to be OK. That's why we'll open up the Travel Hotline tomorrow afternoon (Monday 12/20) from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. You can get the forecast to your holiday destination by calling the Hotline or by logging on to KWCH.com and our Live Interactive Blog.

There are plenty of issues in western Kansas this morning, thanks to dense fog and sub-freezing temperatures. Watch our for not only low visibility but slick spots on the roads there.

After the morning hours, it appears the rest of the day and the first half of the week should be OK. Some big question marks though are looming now for the Thursday-Friday timeframe. If you watched our morning show yesterday, you heard my concerns as I added more clouds and wind to the forecast that morning, but I hadn't bit on the precipitation yet. Well, with this morning's forecast I had to. Take a look at the following maps:



This map is valid for Thursday at 6 a.m. (Courtesy: NOAA/NWS) Note the area of low pressure north of Denver.



This map is valid for Friday at 6 a.m. Note the area of low pressure now southwest of St. Louis.


Finally, this is the amount of precipitation forecast from 6 a.m. Wednesday until 6 a.m. Friday. As it stands right now, Wichita is forecast to receive between 0.10" and 0.25" of precipitation. In what form will it be? That is the $64,000 question. It looks like some light rain, followed by light snow at the current time. As always, there is uncertainty about the path this system will take, the amount of moisture that will get drawn up into the system and how cold the air will be too. Needless to say: stay tuned!!

Finally..."AMS Certified"

I'm happy to announce that on Tuesday, I passed the written exam required to obtain the American Meteorological Society's Certified Broadcast Meteorologist designation.

This honor comes after a couple months of preparation and replaces my AMS "TV Seal of Approval", which I received back in 1999. Like Ross, I am now "double-sealed" from the AMS and from the National Weather Association.