After extreme drought, Wichita likely to see rain followed by cooler weather
After a period of severe drought conditions, Wichita is expected to see much-needed rain starting late Monday night and stretching further into the week followed by a drop into cooler weather into the weekend.
Wichita National Weather Service meteorologist Robb Lawson said the first round of rain chances will begin “late” Monday night and will persist until Tuesday afternoon.
Sedgwick County, along with surrounding south central and southeast Kansas counties, are forecast to see a half-inch of rain on Tuesday.
“A lot of these areas are going to get wet, you know as far as rainfall amounts go,” Lawson said. “Considering how things have been going, right now we’ll take any amount of rain.”
A NWS U.S. drought monitor for Kansas released last week puts most of the state in a drought, with east central and southeast Kansas being in the “extreme” to “exceptional” drought category.
The map showed Wichita to be in the “extreme” range.
A detailed NWS forecast shows Monday night will see temperatures drop into the low- to mid-60s with a 60% chance of rain. Tuesday will see lows hovering between 69 and 77 degrees with a 90% chance of rain.
Showers and isolated thunderstorms are forecast throughout the day on Tuesday, especially after 11 a.m., for the area, according to a Hazardous Weather Outlook said.
Tuesday afternoon the rain will slowly dwindle and push east. Wichita will see another round of rain forecast to start Wednesday night, Lawson said.
Wednesday will see a high of 71 with a 30-40% chance of rain during the day. Those temps will drop to 62 with a 70% chance of rain at night. A possible thunderstorm is expected to form after 8 p.m., a forecast shows.
Lawson said Thursday “doesn’t look too wet” with rain chances more prevalent in the morning hours. A forecast shows a partly sunny high of 75 with a 30% of chance of rain before 11 a.m.
Going into the weekend, temperatures will see a noticeable drop starting Friday night with a low of 43. Saturday’s high is expected to be 55 with a low of 41, the NWS said.
Sunday night will see an even lower drop from a high of 51 to 31 at night. Lawson said the forecast isn’t available for Halloween day yet but said temperatures will be below normal for this time of year.
“Normal temperatures this time of year are in the 60s,” Lawson said. “We’re probably looking at temps somewhere in the 50s right now and at night back in the 40s for trick-or-treating.”
This story was originally published October 23, 2023 at 6:54 PM.