Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Nice Thursday; Wet To End Day Friday

Another quick moving system this morning dropped some light rainfall amounts across the state as you can see on the rainfall map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet.  That was followed by clearing skies which allowed for a pleasant afternoon and temperatures close to their normal daytime values.  Our normal daily temperature range for this date is 69/47 here in Tulsa and we were close to that as you can see on the max/min temperature map, also courtesy of the OK Mesonet.

The northerly winds of today also brought in some drier air which will result in a cooler start to our Thursday morning with temperatures generally in the 40s and perhaps a few in the upper 30s.  Not likely to have clear skies overnight though as some high level clouds look to hang tough.  Those high level clouds together with a NE wind should also keep afternoon temperatures on the cool side with most of us in the lower 60s for a daytime high Thursday.

Friday will be wet with rain likely moving in during the afternoon and evening hours as the next storm system moves our way.  We have been watching this system for a week now and the consensus has continued to suggest the rain will be arriving in western OK Friday morning and spreading our way that afternoon.  That means rain is likely for the Friday night football games and there will likely be some lingering light showers or drizzle into the morning hours of Saturday for the Tulsa Run as well.  As you can see on our forecast page, the cloudy skies all day Friday and Saturday will also impact temperatures.

At least the timing currently suggests most of the rain should have moved on eastward in time for the Halloween trick or treat time frame Saturday evening.  There may be a few sprinkles or drizzle, primarily for the more eastern counties by then and the more western counties may even see some breaks in the clouds. 

As for the amount of rain, the data continues to suggest we will be on the northern fringe of the heavier amounts.  Notice the 3 day QPF map for example which continues to suggest locally heavy and potentially flooding rains well south of us.  If the track of the primary storm system changes, then the location of those heavier rains will also need to be modified, but that is how things stand at this time.

That will be followed by a big warm-up going into early next week as brisk southerly winds return along with mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies.  However, we are starting to see a more regular progression of storm systems coming our way periodically and the next system now looks to be arriving during the Wed/Thu time frame of next week with our next chance of rain.

However, we still do not see any suggestions of really cold air coming this way which is what is suggested by the 8-14 day outlooks.  Notice the continued trend for above normal temperatures on average and also above average chances of precipitation for that time frame.

So stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot