Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Warmer Weekend

The sunshine was certainly welcome today, but the gusty northerly winds for most of the day still kept temperatures in check as you can see on the max/min temperature map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet.  Although clouds did return late this afternoon and we expect to see another low cloud deck to start the day Saturday, those clouds will be thinning out by the noon hour if not sooner and lots of sunshine is expected through the rest of the day helping to moderate temperatures.  Sunday will have some high level cirrus clouds returning but still enough sunshine for temperatures to moderate even more.

Saturday morning will get off to a cold start with morning lows in the low-mid 20s, but at least the winds will be very light.  As the sun returns, temperatures will be moderating but still below normal with afternoon highs in the mid 40s for the most part.  Also, a light SE wind is expected for the afternoon hours.

A much stronger southerly wind will be the general rule for Sunday and temperatures will warm even further with daytime highs well into the 50s and some of the more southern counties possibly near the 60 degree mark, as you can see on our forecast page.

Another cool front will arrive by early Monday morning, but it will be mostly dry.  A few spotty rain showers will be possible with this system but it looks to be moisture starved.  Although temperatures will be cooler behind this system for Mon & Tue, it will not be nearly as chilly as what we have had this past week. 

That will be followed by a return to southerly winds later in the week and that should prevail into that following weekend.  That implies warmer than normal temperatures as a general rule as we end the month of January.  That will be quite a contrast to how the month has gone to this point as we are running more than 2 degrees cooler than normal so far.  Also, our chances of additional precipitation look to be in the slim to none category through next week as you can see on the 7 day QPF map.  Our state is pretty much high and dry through that period with the really active weather on both sides of the U.S.

Looking further down the road, the 8-14 day outlooks continue to suggest temperatures running above normal on average for that first week of February.  However, this El Nino pattern may also bring some additional weather makers our way during that time frame as well as the signal currently suggests an above normal chance of precipitation. 

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot