Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Warm, Humid Friday; Much Cooler Weekend

Another summer-like day today as both our daytime highs and the morning lows were well above normal. Notice the max/min temperature map for example, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, and some locations in NW OK made it into triple digit territory. The second map shows the max heat index for the day, and with dew point temperatures in the 60s and even low 70s at times, many more locations had heat index values near or even above triple digits.

As a reference, the normal diurnal temperature range for this time of year here in Tulsa is 83/62, and today’s numbers were 92/74 along with heat index values that were another 5-7 degrees warmer.

Friday will be the last day of these summer-like conditions as the day will start off in the 70s and should be followed by afternoon highs in the upper 80s to low 90s once again. Heat index values will top out in the upper 90s to near 100 as well. We will also have mostly sunny to partly cloudy skies and gusty southerly winds of 15-25 mph or so.

That also means the Friday night football games will get off to a warm, humid and breezy start, but changes are on the way in the form of a cold front that will arrive later Friday night.

Although the actual frontal passage is not expected till after midnight for most locations, showers and storms are expected to be forming ahead of the front, which may well impact the Friday night football games. As the front moves in from the NW, then the NW counties will be impacted earlier in the evening and then spreading on SE during the overnight hours.

With the exception of the far SE counties, the rains should have moved out by Saturday morning and we should see at least some afternoon sunshine. However, it will be much cooler with brisk N to NE winds through the day Saturday as you can see on our forecast page.

Sunday will see clouds return, cooler weather all day long, and a chance of rain and possibly some thunder for much of the day. The cool front will be well south of us, but some energy aloft will be moving across the state providing the clouds and a good chance of rain for much of the day. That system will be moving on eastward with a few lingering showers possible for the more E or SE counties early in the day, but after that we should be dry.

Notice the 3-day QPF map, for example, which is valid through Sunday evening and suggests the possibility of an inch or more of rain by the time it is all said and done.

Hopefully we get those rains, as the prospects for the rest of the week are in the slim to none category. Again, our forecast page has us basically dry after Monday morning, and the 8-14-day outlook, which takes us through the end of the month, suggests above normal temperatures and below normal rainfall.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot