Cool Monday Followed by a Warming Trend.

As promised, it has been rather breezy today and the map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, shows just how windy the day has been. Those are the strongest wind gusts and the wind direction has been from the north all day. Those gusty northerly winds have also kept the daytime temperatures below normal.

For tonight, the winds will quickly subside as the sun goes down with a light N to NW wind less than 5 mph by morning. Temperatures will quickly fall as well since the air is quite dry and the skies will be clear. That all adds up to a rather cool start to Monday with the immediate Tulsa area right at 40 and surrounding locations, particularly the normally cooler valleys, in the mid 30s.

Monday afternoon will have sunny skies, light NW winds, and daytime temperatures below normal once again. In fact, Monday will likely be the most pleasant day of the week as brisk southerly winds will be returning Tuesday and it will be much warmer for the rest of the week.

The cool, dry surface high pressure ridge that will be over the state on Monday will be sliding on eastward Tuesday. As that happens, our winds will become rather gusty Tuesday afternoon from a S to SW direction. Wednesday afternoon looks to be rather windy and the winds still from a S to SW direction. We will also have lots of sunshine both days so look for daytime temperatures to really warm up. In fact, we should be in the 80s Tuesday and well into the 80s Wednesday with some of our more western counties quite possibly into the 90s. These will be the warmest temperatures we have seen since the first two days of April.

After that, a weak frontal boundary should be arriving during the day Thursday and will be basically moving back and forth across the state right on through the weekend. A storm system aloft will be moving into the southern Rockies during that time as well and the ultimate movement and strength of that system will determine just how unsettled the latter part of the week and the weekend will be. Right now, it appears that most of its energy will be west of us, but with the front in the area and ample moisture available by then, look for at least a scattering of showers/storms beginning Thursday and continuing through the weekend.

In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot