textproduct: Kansas City/Pleasant Hill

KEY MESSAGES

* Periods of snow are expected to begin early Saturday morning and continue throughout the weekend. Heaviest accumulations of 4-8" are expected along and south of the I-70 corridor.

* Well below normal temperatures are expected for the next week. Record low temperatures possible Monday morning.

DISCUSSION

Issued at 355 AM CST Fri Jan 23 2026

Active weather picture headed into the weekend with a cold front moving through the region over the last few hours and arctic air spilling into the region. This will result in non-diurnal temperatures today as temperatures tumble into the single digits F by this afternoon. With the north-northeast winds of 10-15 mph through much of the day today, wind chills are expected to remain sub-zero throughout the day with the coldest wind chills expected a few hours after sunrise this morning. Subzero wind chills are expected across the region throughout the weekend as arctic air remains entrenched over the Central US.

Large upper trough just off the southern California coast is expected to fragment into several smaller shortwaves leading to surges of precipitation across the central and southern plains this weekend. With the arctic airmass well entrenched across the region, any precipitation falling across eastern KS into northern and Central Missouri will begin and remain as snow. First in the series of short waves is expected to build into the the region this evening, but will be fighting an immense amount of dry air in the sub cloud layer. As such, have slowed pops and delayed winter weather advisory/winter storm warning to Saturday morning at midnight. As this short wave builds into the southern plains, good jet dynamics remain across the region with the right entrance region of a 180+ knot jet streak centered over the Ohio Valley remains across the area through at least mid day Sunday. This upper level divergence is enhanced by the left exit region of a secondary jet streak that develops across central Texas into eastern Oklahoma throughout the day on Saturday. With the frigid airmass in place, the dendritic layer extends from roughly from the surface to 550 mb in the atmosphere leading to very efficient ice/snow growth. With snow ratios in the vicinity of 17-19:1, expect a drier than normal snow to gradually accumulate through the weekend. Snow accumulations will largely be concentrated around the short waves both on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Snow is expected to come to an end on Sunday afternoon from west to east as second wave deepens along the east coast and upper level subsidence takes over drying out the atmosphere.

In terms of snow amounts through the weekend, expect 4-8 inches of snow along and south of I-70, with lesser amounts to the north.

The fresh snow cover and clearing skies Sunday night will allow locations to radiate well leading to the coldest temperatures of the season thusfar with widespread temperatures well below zero. The record low of -10 F for MCI on Monday is in question.

Flow briefly turns westerly leading to warming on Tuesday, but additional pushes of arctic air are expected to spill southward across the central and Eastern US keeping temperatures well below normal well into next week.

AVIATION /06Z TAFS THROUGH 06Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 944 PM CST Thu Jan 22 2026

Breezy NE winds will continue overnight through Friday afternoon following the passage of an Arctic cold front, sustained at 12-16 kts with gusts of 20-25 kts. After 00z Saturday, steady NE winds will persist, but the gusts will relax. Mid- and upper-level VFR cloud decks are forecast through the entire period. At this time, the newest model guidance indicates that any impactful snowfall with the incoming winter storm will not arrive at the terminals until after 06z Saturday.

EAX WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

MO...Cold Weather Advisory until noon CST Saturday for MOZ001- 011>014-020>025-031>033. Winter Storm Warning from midnight tonight to 6 PM CST Sunday for MOZ020>023-028>032-037>040-043>046-053-054. Cold Weather Advisory from midnight tonight to noon CST Saturday for MOZ028>030-037>040-043>046-053-054. Winter Weather Advisory from midnight tonight to 6 PM CST Sunday for MOZ001>008-011>017-024-025-033. Extreme Cold Warning until noon CST today for MOZ002>008- 015>017. Cold Weather Advisory from noon today to noon CST Saturday for MOZ002>008-015>017. KS...Cold Weather Advisory until noon CST Saturday for KSZ025-102. Winter Storm Warning from midnight tonight to 6 PM CST Sunday for KSZ025-057-060-102>105. Cold Weather Advisory from midnight tonight to noon CST Saturday for KSZ057-060-103>105.