Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Stormy Night, Great Weekend

Those storms that rolled through this morning brought some nice rains for a few locations and the rain cooled air also helped keep temperatures in check this afternoon.  Notice the rainfall totals so far today and some locations received as much as an inch or more.  By the way, the official total as of late this afternoon for Tulsa as measured at the airport is 0.87” which is the most in any day since all the way back to Aug 6 when over 2” was recorded. 

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Of course, other locations have received much more, but the rains have been very spotty over the last 30 days as you can see on this map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet.

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As mentioned, at least temperatures were not as oppressive as yesterday as you can see on the max/min temperature map for today.  In addition, heat index values generally topped out just over triple digits instead of near the 110 mark such as we had yesterday.

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For tonight and the weekend, major changes will be taking place as a cold front moves through the state tonight followed by clearing skies as drier, cooler air moves in.  This front is expected to set off widespread showers and storms, some of which may be marginally severe with primarily a localized damaging wind threat.  The time line suggests the front itself along the I-44 corridor shortly after midnight and moving out of the SE counties during the morning hours.  The strongest showers/storms will be along and ahead of the front followed by lingering showers and some thunder behind the front.

Cannot rule out some showers/storms impacting the more NW counties before the football games end tonight but for the most part the rains will be later tonight and ending from NW to SE Saturday morning.  Brisk northerly winds for Saturday will bring in drier air with dew points dropping back into the 50s. The rain cooled air should start the day in the mid-upper 60s and the northerly winds will offset the sunny afternoon skies keeping our daytime temperatures in the 70s.

Sunday morning will start off clear and mild with morning lows in the 50s followed by a return to a light SE breeze that afternoon and the sunny skies should push us into the lower 80s.  After that, as you can see on our forecast page, a return to southerly winds will warm things back up early next week before another front arrives late Tuesday or that night.  That will also be our next chance for showers/storms but right now that looks to be a slight chance.  However, milder conditions will then be the general rule for the rest of the week and into that following weekend.  In fact, temperatures as a general rule will be at or below normal for that time frame.  Since the front will be stalling out and becoming diffuse, we will also have some lingering cloud cover and another chance for additional showers/storms late in the week and into that following weekend as well.

Looking further downstream, the 8-14 day outlook is suggesting near normal temperatures and wetter than normal conditions.

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So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot