A chinook wind might blow away a lot of high temperature records set for this date in Kansas, says a local forecaster.

“We’ll have record heat for today. The forecast is for 70 degrees for us today,” said Matt Makens, 6News meteorologist.

“Our old record for today is 67, set in 1965. I think we will beat that easily today,” Makens said.

Other high temperature records for cities in Kansas for this date also may get trumped by today’s warm weather, Makens said.

Here are a few records for various cities for this date: Topeka, 67, set in 1939; Wichita, 75, 2002; Russell, 73, 2002; Salina, 71, 2002; Chanute 66, 1954; Dodge City, 74, 2002.

“I think a lot of those records will fall. Probably not all of them, but most of them today,” he said.

The warm weather is brought on by a chinook wind, which brings warm air down from the Pacific Ocean, over the mountains and into the Plains. The wind is heated by an expansion process as it comes over the Rockies. Chinook means “snow-eater” in the Chinook American Indian language.

But the unusual weather pattern will be gone by the end of the week and normal temperatures will return, Makens said.

The forecast calls for the overnight low to drop to 30. Thursday’s high will be 44 with sunny skies. The overnight low will drop to 15 by early Friday morning.

Friday’s weather will return to more winter-like conditions, with a high of 38 and a low early Saturday morning of 14.

A few clouds will appear for the weekend, with the high Saturday of 36 and an overnight low by Sunday morning of 18. Sunday’s high is expected to be 40.

¢ For the latest forecast, go to weather.lawrence.com and tune in at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to Sunflower Broadband Channel 6.