It’s shaping up to be a chilly week in Wichita and across much of Kansas. The National Weather Service says Thursday evening will take a turn, with a low of 12 degrees and a 40% chance of snow. Friday is expecting a high of 21 with that same chance of snow before noon, while Saturday expected to hit a high of 18 and a low of a chilling 2 degrees. In a tweet Sunday, the NWS credited those chilling temperature forecasts to an “arctic airmass” making its way through the area Thursday through Sunday. Wind chills in Wichita are expected to reach minus 7 degrees Friday morning and minus 13 Saturday, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service. Meanwhile, Hutchinson’s wind chills are supposed to get as low as minus 17 over the weekend, while Russell has the projected coldest wind chills at minus 26 degrees Saturday morning. But what is an arctic air mass and how should you prepare to stay warm if temperatures hit the single-digits? Here’s what to know. “When you say Arctic air mass, it’s an air mass that originates in the Arctic, and stream of air comes down from the pole area … it’s just bitterly cold temperatures,” Bryan Bearg, a forecaster for the NWS’s Wichita office, told The Eagle Monday. According to Encyclopedia Brittanica, arctic air masses originate in the northern and southern hemispheres and can cause biting winds and truly chilling temperatures. Bearg said wind chills are supposed to get as low as minus 20 both Saturday and Sunday morning in Wichita. The last time the city saw these kinds of wind chills was due to an arctic air mass was just after Christmas 2022, the forecaster noted.
Source: Local News | Wichita Eagle
