Kansas Weather 3/8 Midday - 29° Above Normal

Good afternoon. Kansas. I'm Matt Mullins. Step outside right now and you're feeling 54 degrees. That's just the warm-up act. Sunny skies push us into the upper 60s and low 70s this afternoon, with southwest winds gusting to 25 miles an hour. Kansas City tops out near 71 degrees. Wichita hits 68. But the real winner? Dodge City climbs to 75, warmest in the state, thanks to that downslope flow off the Rockies doing its thing. Tonight stays mild. Clear skies, lows settling into the mid to upper 40s. Southwest winds ease to around 10 miles an hour. Monday cranks the heat even higher. We're talking upper 70s to near 80 degrees across much of Kansas — running 29 degrees above normal for early March. Some spots could challenge records. Dodge City's record is 80 degrees. Garden City's is 86. Genuine spring warmth here. But here's the twist. Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night, a strong system barrels in from the southwest. Showers and thunderstorms develop, some potentially severe, especially south and east of Dodge City. Large hail and damaging winds are the main threats. Heavy rainfall is also likely — we could see three quarters to one inch of rain in some areas. Wednesday morning, a cold front sweeps through, dropping temperatures back to the low to mid 50s. That cooldown is brief. By Friday, we rebound to the 60s and low 70s under mostly sunny skies. One more thing — don't forget to spring forward tonight. Clocks move ahead one hour at 2 A.M. and we're gaining daylight fast — 2 minutes and 33 seconds today alone. Spring equinox is just 12 days away. See you this evening.