Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Goodbye Sunshine, Hello Clouds

This was one of the coldest days so far this winter season with morning lows dropping into the teens and single digits for many locations, and some not even making it above the freezing mark this afternoon, as you can see on the max/min temperature map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. In addition, the air has been extremely dry, particularly here in NE OK, where dew points are in the single digits as of late this afternoon, which the next maps show.

Notice much higher dew points are not that far away, though, and with our winds returning to a southerly direction for the overnight hours, that should quickly bring those dew points up - keeping temperatures from bottoming out tonight. Not only that, but the sunny skies of today will be long gone for the days ahead as a low-level cloud deck will return later tonight and any sunshine will be hard to come by for the rest of the week.

Although not as cold tonight, temperatures will quickly fall early, then hold steady, or perhaps even rise somewhat towards morning due to the clouds and brisk SE winds. That will be a cold southerly wind, which will also be the case during the day when afternoon temperature struggle to get much above 40 as you can see on our forecast page.

The clouds are also associated with a disturbance aloft that will be quickly moving overhead and will also wring out some precipitation. There is a slight chance for some very light drizzle for the morning hours, but any showers will be more likely for the afternoon into the early evening. The timing suggests primarily a liquid event and anything that falls will be very light so that no travel issues are anticipated.

Wednesday looks to be between systems with another one moving this way Thursday. The Thursday system has more potential for some wintry precipitation, primarily snowfall, late in the day or into the early night time hours. But, again, any amounts will be very light. Brisk northerly winds and cloudy skies will also keep temperatures very chilly all day.

We should finally get to see some sunshine on Friday, but gusty northerly winds will keep it quite chilly all day long and temperatures will struggle to even reach the 40 degree mark that afternoon.

Fortunately, the weekend is looking more promising with southerly winds and enough sunshine both days for temperatures to moderate well into the 40s on Saturday and the 50s on Sunday. Another cold front will arrive late Sunday but should be dry. However, it will knock temperatures back down for early next week.

After that, we should see more moderation as the 8-14-day outlook continues to suggest temperatures will, on average, be above normal during that time frame. However, the outlook also suggests the potential for a return to a more unsettled period with increased chances of precipitation.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot