Expires:No;;852321
FXUS63 KDDC 081644
AFDDDC

Area Forecast Discussion
National Weather Service Dodge City KS
1144 AM CDT Wed May 8 2024

.KEY MESSAGES...

- Dry and pleasant through the rest of this week, with 
  temperatures near May normals. 

- Thunderstorm chances return  over the weekend.

&&

.SHORT TERM /THROUGH THURSDAY NIGHT/...
Issued at 227 AM CDT Wed May 8 2024

Pleasant temperatures can be expected for the next couple of 
days as a positively tilted synoptic scale trough oriented from 
the western Great Lakes – across Nebraska and Kansas - into the 
Great Basin region shifts very slowly southward forcing the 
southern branch subtropical jet into the sun belt. At the 
surface, broad Pacific high pressure extends across the 
northwest Pacific into the Northern Rockies and High Plains, 
keeping a light to breezy at times (mainly afternoons) surface 
wind field over western and central Kansas. 

The remainder of the week shows plenty of insolation, but also 
very close to normal temperatures in the 70s for the afternoons 
and low 40s west to upper 40s east overnight.

&&

.LONG TERM /FRIDAY THROUGH TUESDAY/...
Issued at 227 AM CDT Wed May 8 2024

For any precipitation chances in the first 7 days of the 
forecast, the weekend continues to be the time window of 
opportunity, as chances of rain thunderstorms (40 to 50 %) are 
in the official forecast, with a ramp up to near likely category
(55 to 60 %) in the west Sunday afternoon. Chances linger 
though Monday tapering downward with time thereafter. 

Supporting that are numerous successive GFS and ECMWF ensemble 
mean 24 hours total QPF showing a wet period of, a couple of 
tenths upwards to .0.30” to 0.40” of rain in this late weekend 
period into early Monday. 

This is associated with deterministic models depiction of the 
southern branch of the split flow pattern developing a closed 
low over the southern Rockies near the 4 corners region by 
Friday and shifting into the central and southern High Plains 
and an open wave through the weekend – resulting in a difluent 
flow aloft with warm advection/pva and a southerly surface 
trajectory conducive to drawing boundary layer moisture into 
all of the western Kansas counties. With a pattern like this, 
some locations could get more than these lower qpf amounts 
offered by the ensemble means, especially in thunderstorms with 
higher rain rates, especially if we have regenerative storms two
days in a row. 

The week 2 outlook (day 8-14 by Climate Prediction Center) does
lean wet (33-40% chance of wetter than normal conditions), with
about a 40-50 percent chance for above normal temps in the same
period (May 15-21).

&&

.AVIATION /18Z TAFS THROUGH 18Z THURSDAY/...
Issued at 1141 AM CDT Wed May 8 2024

VFR conditions will prevail over the TAF period with mid to
upper level clouds developing over the DDC, GCK, and LBL
terminals after midnight. Winds will generally be from a
northerly direction through tomorrow, gusting to around 20 knots
this afternoon before decreasing this evening into the overnight
period. 

&&

.DDC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
None.

&&

$$

SHORT TERM...99
LONG TERM...99 
AVIATION...Hovorka_42