For the most part, Springfield reported clear skies in all of their observations. Sure, there were a couple instances of a passing cloud, but nothing that detracted from the beautiful weather central Illinois saw to end the month of September. V-W had the top forecast, making things all the more beautiful.
Actuals: Wednesday – High 79, Low 48
Thursday – High 78, Low 54
Grade: A
Why is it most of the road trips I write involve California? I know I lived there for 5 years, and twice as long as that in Illinois actually, but still. Oh well, with nice weather covering the western 2/3 of the country the beautiful weather here in the Twin Cities always makes us feel like we’re enjoying a piece of what CA gets nearly year round. Today’s trip will cover 4 days and 2,102 miles. Off we go!
DAY ONE
The tail end of a cold front will pass north of Springfield during the early morning hours, so outside of a few clouds perhaps, it should be a dry start to the day as we head west out of Central IL. Two words are going to be very popular during this road trip…. High Pressure. A large dome of it is shifting into the Central Plains, making for mostly sunny skies and dry weather as we travel though Northern Missouri to Lincoln, NE, and further westward to Grand Island, our stop for the 1st night.
DAY TWO
Well, nothing much to speak of today, weather-wise that is. The dome of high pressure continues to assert itself over the Central US, so nothing but pleasant conditions will be experienced for the trip west into Wyoming where we went the day at Rawlins. Unless of course, you forgot your sunglasses in Grand Island. Then all that squinting might get annoying.
DAY THREE
More sun, different day. As we delve further into the weekend, our old high pressure continue to squish any chances of precip along our route. Some afternoon thunderstorms are possible over portions of the Four Corners and Desert Southwest, but most of that activity will be isolated and well south of our route through Salt Lake City westward into NV where we end our day in Elko.
DAY FOUR
The coast is in our sights! The large ridge of high pressure that caused the Southwest to absolutely roast earlier this week (including an all-time record high in Los Angeles at 113 degrees) continues to control the Western US. What does that mean for the final day of our road trip? Severe thunderstorms! Massive tornadoes! Nah, nothing like that. Just make sure the car’s AC is working well as we make our way through the Sierra Nevada and into CA’s Central Valley by rolling through Sacramento towards San Francisco, and finally into Santa Cruz. Surfs up!
I think this would be one of those drives that people would be willing to attempt in one day, but per our rules, we’ll break it down into two wonderful days. We’ll cover the 938 miles at a pace of 64.9mph. That means the first day will mean we can cover 518 miles. It’s going to be a solid drive, good opportunities to stop at road side attractions, because there won’t be any rain.
DAY ONE
There will be literally nothing exciting about this drive. well, nothing foreseeable anyways. There will be no rain, and the terrain will flatten to pancake like proportions. It’s a lot of empty countryside for our Wednesday route, which will take us into Manhattan…. Kansas.
DAY TWO
I would like to say Thursday will be better, and in a way it will be. We get to cross the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, as well as pass through Kansas City and St. Louis. But really, in terms of weather, we couldn’t ask for a better trip. Sunny skies, temperatures in the high 70s to low 80s. As close to perfect as you get. Springfield will be just as pleasant when we arrive.
Yep, Late again.
At 152AM, CT, Springfield was reporting a temperature of 53 degrees with clear skies. A dominant area of low pressure has become established across the center of the country, leaving mostly ground based influences, like maturing crops, to contribute to to fog or any other phenomenon for the rest of the morning.
Expect Thursday to be very similar to Wednesday as well, with some patchy areas of morning fog, but an otherwise quiet middle of the week with sunny skies and pleasant temperatures.
Today – Sunny, High 77, Low 48
Tomorrow – Sunny, High 76, Low 54
TWC: Today – Sunny. High 78, Low 51
Tomorrow- A mainly sunny sky, High 75, Low 57
AW: Today – Nice with plenty of sunshine High 78, Low 46
Tomorrow – Sunny, breezy and pleasant High 74, Low 54
NWS: Today – Sunny, High 77, Low 47
Tomorrow – Sunny High 73, Low 54
WB: Today – Sunny, High 77, Low 50
Tomorrow – Sunny, High 73, Low 54
This was the most frustrating forecast. Only because my computer is acting poopy, the weather looks nice though.
A 2-day, 940 mile trip through America’s Heartland. Will we see sunny skies or a good old-natured Plains thunderstorm? How about we dabble in both?!
DAY ONE
A large ridge of high pressure has parked itself over the Great Lakes with some patchy morning fog found over Central Illinois. We’ll make our way down I-55 towards St. Louis under sunny morning skies and relatively light winds. The high pressure ridge continues into the Southern Plains, so with the exception of a few high clouds later on in the afternoon, the day should be sunny and quiet. Sunglasses will be a must as we continue through Springfield, MO and make our way down I-44 to Tulsa, OK, our stop for the night.
DAY TWO
We head out of Tulsa towards Oklahoma City, with significantly more clouds than we started off yesterday with. A cold front pushing its way through the Plains yesterday has pushed itself further south as well during the overnight. Showers and thunderstorms that continued through the night over CO and KS have pushed ahead of the front into portions of northwestern OK by morning. Overcast skies will take over by midday and we can expect some scattered showers and thunderstorms to wet the windshields as we make our way south out of Lawton, OK and towards Wichita Falls, TX. Chances for showers and storms will remain through the rest of the day into Lubbock, but luckily are not expected to be severe.
It’s another delightfully brief road trip that will take us through the Lower Mississippi Valley on Friday. It will take roughly 8 hours to get from southwestern Missouri to western Mississippi, and will see about 494 miles tick off the odometer. If we’re driving a hybrid, that’s one tank of gas! We’ll be making the drive at about 61mph, if you were curious.
It’s just a nasty, unstable pattern for much of the country. There is heat and humidity everywhere, with weak little thermal troughs rippling through an indefinite pattern, touching off thunderstorms in a seemingly crazed, aimless pattern over almost all the country east of the Rockies. One such trough will continue to bring wet weather from southern Missouri to about Nashville. I suspect we will see a thunderstorm or two as we begin the drive, particularly until we reach the Arkansas border near West Plains. We should be drier but incredibly warm through Arkansas, with the rain from the tropical system in the Gulf potentially reaching as far north as Memphis, but we should be dry until we get to about the Kosciusko exit on I-55. It will probably be quite rainy in Jackson when we get to town.
