Friday, August 21st 2015, 9:05 pm
Anytime temperatures are below normal in August for Oklahoma is usually a good day in my book. Although we did not set any records today, as was the case yesterday, temperatures were still running up to 10 degrees below normal, as you can see on the max/min temperature map.
One of the contributing factors to the relatively mild daytime temperatures was the clouds and associated showers/storms that rolled through during the morning hours. Some folks picked up a quick inch or so of rain as you can see on the rainfall map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet.
Another chance of showers/storms will be possible for late tonight and into the morning hours of Saturday, followed by a return to partly cloudy afternoon skies. The activity for later tonight should be rather spotty, but a better chance is expected for the Sunday morning time frame when a cool front will be pushing across the state. That boundary is expected to generate a widespread area of showers/storms, some of which could be locally heavy. As you can see on the 3-day QPF map, there is the potential for up to an inch or so of rain over that time frame.
After that, a more stable pattern will be in place with little or no mention of rain for much of next week. Cannot rule out the possibility of an isolated storm or two on any given day, but the chances look to be in the slim to none category as of this writing.
So, that leaves us with temperatures which will return to more normal levels for Saturday. Mostly cloudy overnight skies and a SE breeze should hold morning lows into the low 70s, and with mostly sunny afternoon skies, our daytime high will back to a more normal level in the lower 90s. We will also have a brisk southerly wind of 10-20 mph which will keep those dew point temperatures near 70 - which means the heat index could be near 100 Saturday afternoon.
But, as you can see on our forecast page, the northerly winds behind the Sunday morning cool front will bring temperatures back to below normal levels going into next week - certainly not as cool as the last few days, but pretty nice for August. By later in the week, temperatures will be slowly climbing back to near normal levels, but at least no triple digits are anticipated anytime soon.
Looking further down the road, the 8-14-day outlook continues to suggest a return to above normal temperatures and below normal chances of precipitation as we finish out the month of August and head into the month of September.
In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.
Dick Faurot
August 21st, 2015
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