KSHB: Weather: Action Weather Blog: Spotty Chances

What a nice day across the region! We had plenty of sunshine between fair weather cumulus clouds, and highs in the mid-to-upper 80s.

Now, this evening, we are watching a few isolated thunderstorms in the Northwest part of the viewing area. Here is the evening image on ESP:

These isolated cells are marginally severe... with wind gusts near 40-50mph possible. They are producing some heavy rain... a quick .5 to .75"! Too bad they are not more widespread.

As we go into the weekend, we are back in Northwest flow. Notice the ridge once again building into the Southwest US:

So we'll see a mainly DRY weekend, with the potential for a few spotty showers/thunderstorms as waves of energy rotate around that ridge and drift our way. The best chance looks to be late Saturday into Sunday morning as a cold front moves in.

Overall, we are in a stretch of cooler days! We will see highs in the lower-to-mid 80s through the weekend and most of next week. Do you remember Gary saying that this would happen? I went back and found a blog entry he did on May 16th:

"And, don't be surprised. Just when it is really getting hot in June or early July, the colder part of this cycle will be returning."

And one more link... our Weather Plus page is finally up and running, if you have questions about it:
WEATHER PLUS 101

Just a reminder, today is the LAST day to enter the HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR contest!! We will take entries until midnight. Scroll down to see the contest info... Gary posted it earlier in the week.

Jeff will be here most of tomorrow, I will be back for the 10pm newscast. I will try to remember to post some new Mags pictures over the weekend. Some of you asked about Florida pictures... well... I didn't even make it to the ocean! I was helping my best friend with her newborn! Maybe I will post a baby picture, instead! :)

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Thanks for your last comments regarding what I said about the NWS. I really don't mean to give them a hard time. It is just that yesterday they were hyping the storm so much, and nothing happened. They have a very tough job. For whatever reason, I have always thought broadcast meteorologists were more accurate, and I am not sure what makes you folks more accurate. Maybe it is the way you give the forecast. You tend to give several different things that could happen. Even the NWS discussions don't always go into that much detail. However, that is just the way it is. :-)

The next thing I want to say is I just tuned in "Weather Plus." I like it better than The Weather Channel because instead of having a forecast up on the screen, one of you folks comes up and gives the forecast. It is pre-recorded and on a loop, but I am sure TWC is pre-recorded too.

My guess is when there is a major outbreak of severe weather; there will be full coverage on this channel? Now, that would be awesome.

What I wish you guys could do is go into more detail about WHY things happen. I mean when you say "This model called the GFS is calling for this..." go it would be cool to go into more detail, especially since you have several "breaks" per hour.

It would be cool if you could give your version of the technical discussions from NWS. Actually, I have to believe that is pretty much what you do anyways, just in terms the average Joe can understand.

I love weather. In fact, I really wanted to become a meteorologist. But I am not the best at the high end math, and so I decided to get my degree in Communications. For several years as a teenager I went to the local NBC station in Jackson Michigan (where I am from) and did all kinds of stuff. To this day, I am still good friends with the weather man there.

I would love to meet you and Gary sometime. It would be cool to come down to the station, and watch a newscast live. I also am in broadcasting. I work at Bott Radio Network here in KC as a Traffic Coordinator. I have been in broadcasting for a number of years, and really enjoy it.

Anyway, glad you guys have Weather Plus and the blog. It is great PR. Keep up the good work, and maybe if you guys talk with the guys at the NWS they will use your forecasts. :-)

Brian - Overland Park

BRIAN:
Glad to hear you like Weather Plus! You are exactly right... during a severe weather outbreak, we will be on Weather Plus LIVE. At this point, we just don't have the staff to do it live ALL the time! But we will update it 5 to 6 times a day... more if necessary.

We try to get into quite a bit of detail here on the blog... but we don't want to give EVERYthing away, because we still want you to watch our newscasts! :) Plus, we often don't have time to go into too much detail. You might think we have many "breaks"... and I have worked at TV stations where this WAS the case, but here at NBC Action News... we actually have a LOT to do!

Here is a day in the life of the NBC Action Weather Team:
Look over ALL the data... and make the forecast... then make our graphics for the show. We tape Weather Plus cut-ins regularly... AND tape stuff for the Kansas City Star's website and for our website. We also tape stuff that airs on our sister station, 38 The Spot. We do a newspaper forecast for the KC Star, as well. We have a phone line we have to keep updated... Gary does his radio forecasts... and in the morning we have our e-forecast to do. Not to mention keeping the AM "ticker" updated. We also do appearances every week, be it a school visit, community event or to MC an event. We often give different community groups tours of the station as well. Soooooo when there is downtime, yes, we keep up on the blogging... and answer emails. But sometimes when there is down time, (especially in the afternoons), we are just catching our breath! :)

As for giving our version of the NWS discussions... I typically don't read the NWS discussion on a daily basis... unless the forecast is tricky and I want another opinion. It is also good to read so that we are on the same page during a major event. They do a great job down in Pleasant Hill, and are one of the best NWS offices I have ever worked with! But we do our own forecasts here, so it really would be pointless for us to go through their discussions to try to explain what they are thinking. I hope that explains!

Have a good one!
Jamie