Cloudy, Cool Election Day; Still A Chance Of Showers.

Pretty short thermometer today with the cloudy skies and periods of mostly light rain.  So far today, the official max/min temperature here in Tulsa has been 67/61 as compared to the normal values of 65/43.  As mentioned, the clouds and rain certainly contributed to that, but the dry air in place before the rain was able to saturate down to the surface has so far limited our rainfall totals. 

Speaking of which, here are the rainfall totals, courtesy of the OK Mesonet across the state, as of late this afternoon.  I used the 48 hour totals as the event started more than 24 hours ago for the western counties.  As you can see, much of the state has received at least some rainfall and some of the western counties have picked up a good soaking.  But, many others are still too dry and need more, much more.

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With lingering showers and light rain through the night tonight, there are some indications that a few lucky folks could pick up another ½” or so, but most of the additional rainfall will be much lighter than that.  By morning, there will still be some lingering drizzle or a few light showers which will be gradually tapering off as the day wears on.  However, the cloudy skies and northerly winds will produce another very short thermometer with morning lows in the 50s and daytime highs only around 60 for most of us.

Those northerly winds will bring drier air back over the state resulting in clearing skies for Tuesday night and lots of sunshine for the rest of the week.  That drier air will allow our nights to cool off into the 40s for Wednesday morning and quite likely the 30s for Thursday morning.  In fact, some of the colder valleys in NE OK could see frost or a light freeze.

However, the sunny skies during the day will push daytime highs well into the 60s so at least temperatures for this week will be closer to seasonal values for a change.  There will be some additional, weak systems moving through from time to time which will shift our winds around and provide a few bumps in the road with respect to our daily temperatures.  But, as you can see on our forecast page, no major changes are currently foreseen. 

Unfortunately, no big rain makers are currently foreseen anytime soon either and we certainly do need the moisture.  We may have a chance of a few showers along about this coming Sunday, but right now that system does not appear to be very impressive.

Looking further down the road, there is still no sign of any really chilly 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