Thursday, January 19, 2012

One of the hottest summers in south central Kansas is also to blame for an unusually mild winter.

The warmer temperatures and lack of snow has many residents wondering what happened to the Wichita winter? Good question.

Jay Prater, KAKEland managing meteorologist, said .4 inches of snow has officially fallen in Wichita.

“We have had less than typical snowfall and it has been warmer than average,” Prater said.

There is a connection between the summer scorcher and mild winter, he said.

"The same pattern that set up over the summer that gave our part of the country a lot of heat and dry weather compared to cooler, wetter weather out east, that pattern hasn't broken down yet,” Prater said.

But don’t break out the spring wardrobe just yet.

“Once that pattern breaks down, that's when we will see a return to more normal temperatures or colder than normal temperatures across KAKEland,” Prater said.

Snow has fallen in the Air Capital as late as April.