Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Warmest Of The Year, Then Turning Colder

Even though a cool front moved across the state early this morning, and we had northerly winds all day, temperatures still moderated rather nicely this afternoon, as you can see on the max/min temperature map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Full sunshine all day long certainly helped in that regard, plus the fact that those northerly winds were not very strong.

For tonight, clear skies and light winds returning to a more SE direction by morning will result in a frosty start with morning temperatures in the mid-upper 20s. Lots of sunshine all day long and a light SW wind should push afternoon temperatures as much as ten degrees above normal, which translates into daytime highs in the mid-upper 50s. By the way, that will be the warmest we have been so far this year as 2016 has been much cooler than normal up to this point.

Thursday will be warmer, yet, with morning lows in the upper 30s and daytime highs which should reach the low 60s, depending on cloud cover. We will also have gusty southerly winds all day which will bring back the low-level moisture, and thus some low-level stratus clouds to start the day, which should burn off enough for at least some afternoon sunshine.

Our next, stronger cold front will then arrive by early Friday morning followed by a return to much cooler temperatures. The day should start off in the upper 30s, but not much warming is anticipated due to mostly cloudy skies and gusty NW winds all day long. There will also be a chance of a few, brief showers for the early morning hours, but temperatures suggest anything that does fall will be liquid and very light.

After that, as you can see on our forecast page, we will be much cooler through the coming weekend and into early next week. The NW flow aloft will also provide enough energy for clouds from time to time, keeping temperatures from totally bottoming out at night, but also keeping us from moderating much during the day. As a result, the weekend will likely have overnight lows in the 20s and daytime highs in the 30s.

At least the winds will be much lighter on Sunday before another re-enforcing surge of cooler air arrives for Monday. The Monday system may also be able to wring out some snow flurries, but what does fall will be very light. In fact, as you can see on the 7-day QPF map, any precipitation we receive over that time frame would be very light with much heavier amounts again on tap for the W Coast.

Those wet systems impacting the W Coast may eventually have more of an influence on our weather, as the 8-14-day outlook suggests the potential for a more unsettled pattern over that time frame. However, notice that temperatures are also expected to average above normal during that time frame which suggests that after the very cold weekend and start to the work week, we should be moderating rather nicely for the rest of the week.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot