Unsettled Monday, Hot & Humid Later in the Week.

Could be another long night tonight as we remain in the risk area for severe storms not only through the night tonight, but right on through the day Monday and Monday night as well. The primary risk is for damaging winds/hail through the period although heavy rainfall may also result in localized flooding problems. The more northern counties received most of the rainfall last night as you can see from the map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Another inch or two will be possible in much the same locations, so those are the most likely places to have drainage problems.

The showers/storms that do form this evening/overnight will be weakening during the morning and into the afternoon hours of Monday with another round expected to be developing late Monday into Monday night. After that, conditions should begin to settle down with only some lingering showers/storms into the morning hours of Tuesday and only isolated showers/storms after that.

In fact, the rest of the week will be an early taste of summer with much above normal temperatures and given the recent rains, high humidity levels as well. The cloudy skies and rain cooled air in the vicinity should keep daytime temperatures in the 70s for Monday, but 80s are expected by Tuesday and upper 80s to near 90 for the latter part of the week. The abundant moisture will also keep us from cooling much at night with morning lows well into the 60s and perhaps only near 70 as the week wears on. The expected daytime highs will be just below record levels and the expected overnight lows will be near record levels. The normal temperature range for this time of year is the mid 70s during the day and the mid 50s at night. We will be nowhere close to those levels for this entire week.

As our current unsettled pattern becomes more stable during the coming week, that also means that despite the heat and humidity, the chances of a cooling shower or storm will be minimal. In fact, the chances look to be less than 20% on any given day so have removed a Probability of Precipitation (PoP) from the forecast for later this week. A building ridge aloft will be responsible for the even warmer temperatures later this week and the lack of any organized showers or storms. Something else to keep in mind is that this will be early for this kind of heat and humidity and these conditions will place additional stress on the human body…..in other words, be careful with the outdoor activities as the week wears on.

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

Dick Faurot