A bit of wistful thinking in the Ozarks....

Chiefs just won the AFC Championship and will face the Eagles in the Super Bowl two weeks from today.  It is the first time -- ever -- a team has tone to the Super Bowl five times in six years. The Chiefs are amazing. In fact, the Chiefs will be the first team in position to even try for a three-peat. 

Wikipedia  If you are planning to attend the Texans vs Chiefs Saturday afternoon, please be prepared for very cold conditions. The temperature at game time should be about 25° with a north wind of 10-20mph which should make for a wind chill of about 11°F. Unfortunately, temperatures will be falling significantly during the game. Please make sure you are adequately dressed!   Note: In the extreme cold of last year's playoff game (about 20 degrees colder wind chill than being forecast for Saturday) fans lost limbs (especially fingers and toes).  Please take this seriously.

... Saturday, please be prepared for extreme cold. I will have more on this Tuesday. 

The above is one of my favorite episodes of The Simpsons  where conman Lyle Lanley (modeled after Prof. Harold Hill in The Music Man ) swindles the town of Springfield to vote for a defective monorail.  With ballot measures to build new or remodel stadia in Washington and Kansas City this spring, Lyle and Harold come to mind. Twitter wag "Iowahawk" published a great series of comments: Look, I love the Kansas City Chiefs. I've probably been to 120+ home and away games. But, the taxpayers of Jackson County, Missouri, bought Arrowhead Stadium for them -- which is fine. The taxpayers largely paid for a major remodeling. The Chiefs sold naming rights to GEHA for the field for huge dollars.  In my estimation, if the Chiefs want "an even better Arrowhead" then they should pay 100% of the cost.  The Royals' downtown stadium is a bad joke for a bad team. If the Royals want to abandon the stadium the taxpayers purchased for them, they should pay 100% of the cost wi...

Chiefs fans are still basking in the memory of  Sunday's thrilling overtime win.    Perhaps that is why the NFL, which to my recollection has never before emailed me, sent an invitation to make a deposit  on tickets for next year's Super Bowl LIX (59) just hours after the Super Bowl 58 concluded, There reasons to be sentimental about a New Orleans Super Bowl for Chiefs fans. It was the site of our first world championship after losing to Green Bay in Super Bowl I. My parents attended Super Bowl IV while my then-girlfriend came over the house to watch because I had to babysit my younger sisters 🙃.    Keep Matriculating the Ball Down the Field Boys! That was the game where Chiefs Coach Hank Stram was wired for sound by NFL Films. If you like football and have never seen the above clip, I urge you to watch.  In homage to Hank, current Chiefs Coach Andy Reid wore the same style sport coat on his way into the stadium Sunday.  Instead of "65 Toss Pow...

It is a good thing the four members of the Mahomes family are being treated to Disneyland by virtue of winning the Super Bowl! Given that it costs $1,000/day , Otherwise, I don't know if they would be able to afford it!!😉😀

Whew! Between the Chiefs and tornado coverage, what a day!! As I write this, there is still a tornado warning in Louisiana but I didn't want to wait any longer to write about the amazing Chiefs. Congratulations to Chiefs Kingdom!! Nice guys finish first! Between the Chiefs victory and covering storms on Twitter (do you follow me @usweatherexpert  ?), I may be up all night! P.S. Hardman didn't realize he had won the game until Mahomes told him . 

Jan Stenerud, the Chiefs' legendary kicker -- who played in the 1971  Christmas Day game --presents the Lamar Hunt Trophy after the Chiefs won the AFC Championship last Sunday Photo: CBS Sports Today is a day Chiefs fans never thought would  never occur.  The Kansas City Star  has a touching article about the generations of utter frustration of being a Chiefs fan in the years from Christmas Day 1971, when we lost the longest game in NFL history to the Dolphins, to the Patrick Mahomes era.  What the location of Kansas City's old Municipal Stadium  looks like today. Famous Arthur Bryant's bar-b-que is five blocks  north on Brooklyn. Six years ago, when we saw Mahomes start against Denver in place of then-starting QB Alex Smith (a great man, who never got enough credit), we knew something special was about to occur. But, we would never have dreamed we would make the Super Bowl four out of the next five years.  Chiefs fans do not take this lightly....

Year after year, the Chiefs get underestimated (we were 4.5 point underdogs in this game) and we come through. I posted the forecast before the game and a Ravens fan made a prediction.  Click on "Read More" to enlarge to see the comment. SZN, keep your day job and don't get into forecasting the weather or sports. 

Forecast Weather Maps for Kickoff at 3pm EST There will be scattered showers during the game. I do not expect any lightning.  Wind will not be much of a factor.  Temperature of 43° at kickoff.  Temperatures will stay in the low 40's until the game ends.  There will be no weather issues for the Detroit at San Francisco game.  If there are any major changes, I will Tweet them @usweatherexpert.  Go Chiefs!!

Here is the forecast radar at kick-off tomorrow in Baltimore. At 3pm Eastern (kick-off), the temperature should be about 39° with the temperature more or less steady during the game. I disagree with the forecasts calling for continuous rain. I believe there will be a few showers but it will rain a minority of the time.  The weather in Santa Clara for Detroit v San Francisco should be nice.  And, just for fun, here is the original "Chefs" commercial. Regardless of whether it is the Chefs or the Chiefs, I look forward to a great game tomorrow!

Final Score:  Chiefs 27, Buffalo 24. We go to the AFC Championship for a record 6th time in a row.  In spite of the poor sportsmanship (snowballs thrown at the Chiefs while on the field), I genuinely feel bad for the Bills Mafia. They are great supporters of their team. Too bad we can't play the Bills in the SB.  Then, again.....

In the NFL's divisional playoff round, the Chiefs and Bills played what may have been the greatest NFL game -- ever -- at Arrowhead. Twenty-five points were scored in the final two minutes, including a thrilling 13-second drive that allowed the Chiefs to tie it was time ran out in the 4th quarter. The Chiefs won in overtime. The highlights are here . The NFL will not allow me to embed the highlights. Sorry.  This evening, there will be a rematch -- only this time it will be in Orchard Park, NY.   I will not state which team   for which   I will be vigorously cheering but maybe you can figure it out . 

Colorado All Weekend Given the unusually strong jet stream and minor impulses of low pressure flowing along it, the Colorado Rockies will be choked with snow this weekend. Some areas will have period of very strong winds. It has been advised not to travel on I-70 because officials are not confident snow removal crews can keep up.  Dolphins Arriving in Kansas City this afternoon Harold Kuntz Kansas City, MO Saturday Evening At kickoff, the temperature should be about -3 °F at the Truman Sports Complex where Arrowhead Stadium is located. By 10pm, the temperature should have dropped to -5° F. The wind chill at 10 o'clock should be - 27° F. From what I can determine, this will be the second coldest NFL playoff game in history. It will be the coldest game of any kind that Dolphins have played. The Dolphins are 3-0 against the Chiefs in Kansas City, hopefully, they will be frozen out by tomorrow evening's weather.  Orchard Park, NY Sunday Many are wondering whether snow will be a fa...

  Otis Taylor, one of the AFL-NFL's all-time great receivers, passed away this morning. I have extremely fond memories of the Chiefs' late Hank Stram calling for "the bomb" (an extremely long, arcing pass) that the late Len Dawson would throw to Otis with him racing down the north sideline at old Municipal Stadium.  But, Taylor is most known for his touchdown catch in Super Bowl IV, where he broke two  tackles and -- where else? -- raced down the sideline for the Chiefs final score (clip above). They beat heavily favored Minnesota, 23-7.  And, really, the game wasn't even that close. The Chiefs utterly dominated. It was the last game played by the old AFL. The AFL-NFL merger became effective when the gun sounded to end the game.  Taylor is #1 in per-game reception yards among Chiefs receivers and he is still #5 all-time in total yards among Chiefs' receivers. There is more on his career, here .  Otis had suffered from dementia for many years so his passin...

Today is a great day for  ChiefsKingdom I predict a win by 10. 

Cold Wave Forecast Above are the forecast temperatures for 6am Sunday. Double-digit below zero temperatures (these are not wind chills) in the northern Great Plains.  If you are one of the 76,000+ going to the Bengals - Chiefs game, the 6pm temperature (top) and wind chill maps are below. I've circled the forecast that is technically for the Lee's Summit (suburb) airport but it is near Arrowhead. The forecast temperature in the first half should be 17°F with a wind chill of  5°F. For Monday, incredible cold in the central United States.  At my house, the predicted low is -10°F! By Tuesday at 6am, the Arctic cold air mass will have reached the Gulf and the below zero low temperatures will have pushed as far east as Indiana.  Ice Storm While I am pretty good at forecasting ice storms without models at about 24-30 hours, beyond that, it is important to use the models. And, there is an extraordinary spread in their forecasts, still. So, what I am doing is taking a pretty...

...for making the AFC Championship game for the fifth straight year!

Here the forecast for the weekend snow with a little bit of focus on Arrowhead Stadium where 76,000+ will be watching the Chiefs and Jags in the NFL Divisional Game. One of the problems forecasting this storm is because temperatures are going to be relatively warm as is the ground. That means some of the snow that will fall will melt.  There may be some snow during the game but I do not believe there will be significant accumulations while the game is in progress. Patrick Mahomes, based on past experiences, seems comfortable playing in snow. Forecast Snowfall now until 6am Saturday Forecast Snowfall 6am Saturday until 6am Sunday To time the storm, below are forecast radars. Keep in mind that these are rarely precise; they should be used in a general way. Blue is falling snow and green is rain. 9am Saturday Forecast Radar 3pm Forecast Radar 8pm Forecast Radar Note: It appears a second winter storm will affect this same area, and perhaps areas to the south, the first part of next wee...