140 FXUS63 KDDC 201026 AFDDDCArea Forecast Discussion National Weather Service Dodge City KS 526 AM CDT Sat Sep 20 2025
.KEY MESSAGES...
- Dense Fog Advisory for areas generally along and west of Highway 83 through the mid morning hours behind weak cold front.
- A more robust storm system will arrive Monday/Monday Night bringing an increased chance for scattered to numerous thunderstorms -- including a severe thunderstorm risk.
- Cooler weather is likely Tuesday and Wednesday following a strong cold front. Probabilities of highs in the 60s in the 20-40% range west of a Dodge City to Liberal to Hays line for Tuesday.
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.DISCUSSION... Issued at 349 AM CDT Sat Sep 20 2025
Late night strong to marginally severe thunderstorms moved southeast away from southwestern Kansas overnight as the latest disturbance moved east out of the region. A weak front followed this wave, however the winds behind the front were not all that strong. That being said, the northeasterly post-frontal winds attained enough upslope component with good moisture remaining in place, favoring the development of fog across far western Kansas. A Dense Fog Advisory was issued based on these atmospheric conditions and strong signals from high resolution models such as the HRRR and RAP. As of 0830Z, dense fog was fairly widespread across northwestern Kansas which matched previous runs of the HRRR and RAP runs fairly closely, so we feel fairly confident that this area of dense fog will continue to build southward, mainly along/west of Highway 83 to the Colorado line.
An upper level ridge will build across the Four Corners region across the Southern Rockies late this weekend but will quickly be replaced by an upstream northern stream digging jet streak. This northern stream trough will approach Colorado and the Central High Plains Monday with a fairly strong cold front following. This will lead to a favorable environment for numerous strong to severe storms across eastern Colorado into western Kansas. The latest SPC Day 3 Convective Outlook has a fairly large 5% risk area (combined severe prob) across much of Oklahoma, Kansas and southern Nebraska, including our southwest Kansas region. POPs have been increased to 40-50% across much of west central and southwest Kansas and into south central Kansas.
Latest 00Z global model runs now show a 500mb low closing off somewhere across eastern Colorado or western Kansas on Tuesday as the system moves east across the Central Plains. This would favor a period of cool, rainy weather just to the north of the low track Tuesday/Tuesday evening, but models are still fairly unstable with respect to run-to-run consistency when it comes to timing and track of the mid level cyclone, so further adjustments of POP/Wx grids are likely going into Tuesday. Temperatures may also be lowered as models come into better agreement given strength of the low level cold advection and degree of low cloudiness behind the system.
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.AVIATION /12Z TAFS THROUGH 12Z SUNDAY/... Issued at 523 AM CDT Sat Sep 20 2025
Morning fog and low stratus will keep GCK airport in LIFR/IFR category through roughly 16Z with conditions improving thereafter. IFR/MVFR ceiling and/or visibility may temporarily affect LBL, DDC, and HYS terminals, but confidence is not that high that prevailing conditions will be MVFR or worse. Winds will remain fairly light, becoming northeasterly at all terminals then eventually becoming easterly late.
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.DDC WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... Dense Fog Advisory until 10 AM CDT /9 AM MDT/ this morning for KSZ043-044-061>063-074-075-084-085.
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DISCUSSION...Umscheid AVIATION...Umscheid
NWS DDC Office Area Forecast Discussion