483 FXUS63 KDDC 042249 AFDDDCArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Dodge City KS 549 PM CDT Sat Oct 4 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Marginal Risk (Level 1 of 5) severe storms Sunday evening along and just ahead of a strong cold front.
- A second round of storms (some strong, but very low severe potential) late Monday night into early Tuesday morning along elevated frontal zone.
- Much cooler temperatures, especially Tuesday with highs in the 60s, but a return to 80s by late workweek.
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.DISCUSSION... Issued at 356 PM CDT Sat Oct 4 2025
Sensible weather will become more active over the next couple of days as a formidable autumn storm system moves out across Colorado and across the Northern and Central Plains. Ahead of the system, the leeside trough continued to deepen with a low developing along the lee trough across northeastern Colorado. Active weather in terms of organized thunderstorms will remain well northwest of our southwest Kansas region this evening, however a weak trailing line of showers and isolated storms will likely clip far west central Kansas before weakening later on this evening as the bulk of the forcing for ascent lifts across western Nebraska.
Going into Sunday, the main jet streak and mid level potential vorticity anomaly will eject northeastward across the Dakotas, resulting in a cold front push into western Kansas. In the wake of the first vigorous shortwave trough will be a second within the larger scale pattern which will move out of Idaho and across Wyoming. This pattern will put western Kansas in a favorable right entrance region of the upper level jet for enhanced upward vertical motion to go along with the strong low level convergence along the frontal zone itself. By late afternoon, all short term models show the front extending southwest to northeast across west central Kansas, generally along a Syracuse to Hays line. There should be ample SBCAPE (75th percentile upwards of 1500 J/kg off the 12z HREF) and deep layer shear for for at least widely scattered severe storms in the first few hours upon initiation (which looks to be right around 23Z or 6 PM CDT). The SPC Day 2 outlook of Marginal-1 looks pretty good for now, but would not be surprised if we see a small area upgraded in future outlooks given the pretty good CAPE/Shear combo and intense low level convergence supporting rather well organized convective clusters and or line segments during the early to mid evening hours.
Looking ahead into Monday and Monday Night, the surface front will push south of southwest Kansas into the Texas Panhandle and western Oklahoma, but the frontal zone around 850mb (~5kft AGL) will become quasi-stationary across southwestern Kansas, and with ample low level moisture remaining in vicinity of the frontal zone, additional showers and thunderstorms will develop in vicinity of the front around 850mb. Not surprisingly, this is where the latest NBM has the axis of highest QPF values Monday Night into early Tuesday -- 40-50% probabilities of 24-hr QPF in excess of 0.25" across much of southwest into central KS.
Monday through Wednesday will be much cooler with highs in the 60s and lower 70s behind the front, but once this pattern breaks down later in the week, we will re-enter a warm and dry pattern with highs back in the 80s and near-zero precipitation.
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.AVIATION /00Z TAFS THROUGH 00Z MONDAY/... Issued at 549 PM CDT Sat Oct 4 2025
Gusty southerly winds will continue through much of this TAF period, especially into tonight and Sunday morning. Expect winds to be sustained 15-20 knots with gusts 35-30 knots. Additionally, LLWS is once again expected to increase into this tonight given the development of a strong LLJ. Into late Sunday afternoon and early evening, a front traversing southwest and central Kansas will likely be the focus for thunderstorm development. Some storms could impact the terminals after 21z, especially DDC and HYS, but with low confidence in exactly where storms will develop, will keep mention of storms off the TAFs for now. Could need mention in subsequent updates.
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.DDC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... None.
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DISCUSSION...Umscheid AVIATION...Bennett
NWS DDC Office Area Forecast Discussion