Warmest Day of the Year So Far, Unsettled Weather Ahead.

The severe weather of yesterday is still being tallied so the total number of tornadoes and their intensities have not been fully determined as yet.  Damaging hail also occurred with a number of storms and here is the preliminary report on yesterday’s severe weather.

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Up until today, our warmest day of the year has been Apr 5 when we topped out at 87 degrees.  Today’s numbers were 89/59 which compares to the normal values for max/min of 78/57.  By the way, in case you are wondering the last time we made it to 90, officially, was back on Oct 15. Notice it was very warm statewide as you can see from the max/min temperatures courtesy of the OK Mesonet.  It was also very humid for the more southern counties where heat index values were above 90 due to dew point temperatures holding in the low 70s which is more typical of summer.

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A brisk southerly breeze overnight tonight along with those high dew point temperatures moving back our way will keep us from cooling much so look for overnight lows around the 70 degree mark.  We will have more cloud cover on Wednesday, but southerly winds and at least some sunshine should push daytime highs back into the upper 80s.  A cool front will be arriving during the overnight hours shifting our winds to northerly for Thursday and also returning temperatures to more normal readings as you can see on our forecast page.

Showers and storms may be developing ahead of the frontal boundary Wednesday afternoon, becoming more widespread that night into Thursday morning.  This looks to be a low end severe weather threat, but this is May and there will be the potential for some severe storms with primarily a wind/hail threat the way things stand now.

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Our skies will be clearing by Thursday afternoon and our winds returning to a southerly direction on Friday.  Together with lots of sunshine, look for daytime highs to reach the lower 80s Friday after a cool start that morning.  After that, the coming weekend will be much cooler and also unsettled as a stronger front will arrive Friday night or early Saturday. 

The Friday night frontal boundary will be moisture starved so little or no active weather is expected with the front itself.  However, the northerly winds behind that boundary will make it much cooler for the weekend and the surface front will stall out along the Red River later Saturday.  At the same time, a NW flow aloft will bring upper level systems our way and this combination will make for a relatively cool and unsettled period for the weekend into early next week.  Right now, it looks like most of Saturday should be OK but clouds and showers will be spreading this way late in the day or that night.  Rain and embedded storms are then expected to be more widespread for Sunday going into early next week.  As you can see, the potential is there for some significant rains over the coming 7 days with the showers/storms later Wed/Wed night and again later in the weekend and into next week.

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And it looks like that unsettled pattern will persist into the latter part of next week as well along with a signal suggesting temperatures running somewhat below normal.  So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

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Dick Faurot