textproduct: Springfield

KEY MESSAGES

- Record high temperatures possible today through Sunday.

- Elevated to significant fire weather concerns today and Sunday.

SHORT TERM /THROUGH SUNDAY/

Issued at 158 AM CDT Fri Mar 20 2026

Spring equinox occurs today at 9:46 AM CDT this morning! Daylight will continue to increase everyday until the summer solstice in June. Today will certainly feel like summer. Skies are clear with temperatures sitting in the mid 50s to lower 60s across the area. Winds are light out of the south-southwest early this morning. Today will be sunny with highs reaching the upper 80s as mid-level high pressure continues to build over the Baja peninsula. Winds will be out of the south-southwest with gusts sitting between 15-20 mph. Model soundings are looking pretty dry and show potential for good mixing to occur today. Lowered hourly dewpoints and increased hourly temperatures by a couple degrees today since the trend the past few days is for warmer than expected temperatures and lower than expected dewpoints. Min RH values are forecast to drop into the low 20% range by this afternoon. Therefore, elevated fire danger conditions are expected across the area today. Be sure to avoid activities that cause open flames or sparks and properly discard cigarettes.

Saturday will be the hottest day of the week with temperatures reaching 90 degrees across most of the area. The overall synoptic pattern won't change much until Sunday. We will have to monitor the possibility of Saturday becoming another elevated fire weather day. Dewpoints will be in the 40s to 50s making this feel more like a dry heat.

A cold front will move through late on Sunday and bring lows overnight into the 40s. Though, we will still see highs in the upper 80s for Sunday. That frontal passage still looks dry at this time, and we'll have to watch for elevated fire weather concerns as wind gusts will be near 30 mph with min RH values in the 20-30% range. Then, we start to see a slight cool down and get back to more normal temperatures to start next week.

LONG TERM /SUNDAY NIGHT THROUGH THURSDAY/

Issued at 158 AM CDT Fri Mar 20 2026

Next week will feature another gradual warm up. High pressure will continue to build over the four corners region and slowly move east through the week. Highs on Monday will be in the 60s. Then, a shortwave is forecast to move just to our east on Tuesday and unfortunately, we look to miss out on the rain. We may see a few shortwaves move just over the ridge and through the area next week, but RH values and dewpoints still look pretty dry with min RH's in the 20-30% range. This may make it tough for any rain to fall over us even with the series of disturbances moving through. Right now, no widespread rainfall is forecast through the end of the period. Wednesday and Thursday will be in the 70s and 80s with lows in the 40s and 50s.

AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z SATURDAY/

Issued at 618 AM CDT Fri Mar 20 2026

Patchy haze has developed over far southwestern Missouri this morning and has lowered visibilities down to 5 SM at JLN and they are sitting at MVFR. Haze will stick around for a few more hours this morning before dissipating near 16z. VFR ceilings will return for all of the sites by later this morning. Winds will be southwesterly just under 15 knots through the day before becoming variable overnight.

SGF WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

KS...None. MO...None.