Still Very Warm

The fog this morning was dense, widespread, and very visible from space as you can see on this visible satellite image from 8:30 this morning. 

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This next visible satellite image was from 2:30 this afternoon when the fog had pretty well dissipated for most locations except along the OK/KS state line.  It finally burned off there later this afternoon.

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As might be expected, the persistent fog had quite an impact on temperatures as you can see from the afternoon high temperature map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet.  Daytime highs in the 80s were common where they had ample sunshine most of the day and only 60s where the fog was last to dissipate. 

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Now that the fog has finally dissipated, we will have fair skies going through the overnight hours and there is still plenty of moisture available as our dew point temperatures are holding in the lower 60s for the most part.  That leaves open the possibility of fog reforming again tonight, but there is one difference.  Our winds are not expected to go completely calm and we should have a light but persistent SE breeze through the overnight hours.  With that in mind, we are still expecting patchy fog to reform tonight, but it should be primarily confined to the more protected valleys.  And, those dew point temperatures mean it will not be cooling off much either with morning lows near 60 for most of us.

Lots of sunshine for Friday and a gusty S/SW wind of 15-25 mph or more will result in a quick warm-up.  Those gusty winds will quickly disperse any lingering fog or low level clouds that hang around into the morning hours.  Also, the record high for Friday is 86 and we will be very close to that number.  If we were severe clear all day, then we might break it, but right now it appears we will have just enough cloudiness to make it a close call.  At any rate, that means extremely warm conditions for the high school football games Friday night as temperatures will still be well into the 70s by game time.  By the way, the normal max/min at this time of year here in Tulsa is 70/47.

These much above normal temperatures will continue right on through the weekend and into the following week as you can see on our forecast page.  The high temperature record for Saturday and Sunday happens to be 90 both days, so don’t think we will threaten those numbers.  On Monday, the record is 87 and our current forecast is just below that as well.  We are expecting occasional periods of high level clouds to pass overhead as the flow aloft becomes more SW and that should help keep our daytime highs from punching through those record levels, but it will be close.

There will also be some day to day variation in the winds, with strong and gusty southerly winds for Friday and Saturday.  A weak boundary looks to drop to near the OK/KS state line on Sunday which should relax the pressure gradient somewhat giving us a break in the strength of the winds.  However, very gusty southerly winds look to return for Monday and into the day Tuesday.

This very warm pattern still looks to persist into the 8-14 day time period as well.  Notice the 8-14 day outlook continues to have a strong signal for above normal temperatures well into November.  This would suggest daytime highs continuing well into the 70s as our normal highs by then are in the mid 60s.  Our chances of rain during that period are not very optimistic though with the wetter signal further west of us.

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So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot