Rain Moves Out But Cold Air Stays For Wednesday

The tail end of a big winter system is quickly exiting northeastern OK this morning with a small area of wintry precipitation clipping extreme northeastern OK and southeastern Kansas where surface temperatures will be slightly below freezing for the next few hours.  No major issues are expected.  By the time most read this post, the precipitation will be over.  Cold weather remains today with mostly cloudy conditions for most of the day.  A few breaks will occur later this afternoon from the northwest to southeast, but clouds will remain, and afternoon highs will have little chance of recovering.  Afternoon highs will reach near 40 north and the mid to 40s south.  The next wave quickly drops across the southern plains Thursday night with a slight chance of a few spotty showers.  If the timing and moisture profile doesn’t change, this will pass will little fanfare by early Friday morning.  We see one more wave dropping to the east of the state Saturday morning, but the atmosphere appears to dry and this system a hair too far east for any sensible weather impacts.  This upper level system is rather robust but currently has very little or any significant moisture in the path when it crosses Northeastern OK Friday.  As this system moves east, it will open the door for some improving weather into the weekend.

As the pattern changes this weekend, an unseasonably strong mid-level ridge will build from the Mexican Plateau into the southern plains with temperatures warming at all levels of the atmosphere.  This will bring unseasonably warm weather also to the plains states, with highs Saturday in the lower 60s and Sunday nearing 70.  This ridge is a quick hitting feature before exiting the region Monday as the upper air flow brings another trough into the plains.  As this occurs, a strong arctic front (shallow cold air) will blast through the area sometime Monday evening or Tuesday with falling temperatures Tuesday with chilly weather sticking around through the 2^nd half of next week.  The data is inconclusive regarding precipitation chances through this period, but climatology tells us we’re entering the favored period for active wintry weather.   Nothing of major consequence today for this period in the data, but as always, stay tuned!

Thanks for reading the Wednesday morning weather discussion and blog.

Have a super great day!

Alan Crone