Cooler Nights, Sunny Days.

Another short thermometer today as the clouds/rain/saturated air from last night certainly kept temperatures from dropping much and the northerly winds and clouds through the day kept us from rebounding any.  So far today, the max/min for Tulsa stands at 62/59 as compared to the normal values of 65/43.  At least we did get some decent rainfall overnight in a few locations, although once again the heavier rains were localized and we still need a good, widespread, soaking rain across the state.  Here is the 24 hour rainfall map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, and although some picked up an inch or more, most are still too dry.

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For tonight, the clouds will be gradually clearing from N-S leaving us with generally fair skies to start the day on Wednesday and lots of sunshine for the rest of the week.  Northerly winds are bringing cooler, drier air our way which should result in morning lows dropping into the low-mid 40s.  Those northerly winds will continue at 10-15 mph during the day, offsetting the sunshine to a certain extent so look for afternoon temperatures to top out in the low-mid 60s for Wednesday afternoon.  In other words, pretty close to normal for this time of year.

That will be followed by what looks to be the coolest weather of the season for Thursday morning as most of us should be in the 30s.  Some of the cooler valleys will have a frost/freeze potential that morning as well but a SW breeze during the day will produce a nice rebound as you can see on our forecast page.

Another weak boundary will shift our winds back to northerly Friday but this system has no moisture to work with so it will not amount to much more than a wind shift along with holding temperatures fairly steady.  Our winds will quickly return to a more southerly direction over the weekend going into next week.  That means temperatures will moderate somewhat and will be generally a bit above normal.  Another weak system will bring more clouds our way Sunday into Sunday night and could produce a few light showers but this system is also moisture starved so the chances look to be very low.

In fact, as you can see on the 7 day QPF map, the potential for any moisture at all is pretty much in the slim to none category through that time frame.

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Looking further down the road, there is still no sign of any really cold air coming this way through the 8-14 day outlook so above normal temperatures should be the general rule through that time period.  This would suggest daytime highs generally in the upper 60s to lower 70s as our normal highs by then are in the low-mid 60s.  There are some indications that we may see some much colder air finally moving this way around the Thanksgiving time frame, but that is still very tentative.  Unfortunately, the chances for a good, soaking rain still looks to be minimal, at least through the next two weeks.

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So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot