Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Not As Hot, But Better Chances of Rain Through The Weekend

It has been another hot, humid day but at least not to the level we had yesterday. As you can see from the max/min temperature map across the state for today, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, temperatures have dropped off just enough to keep anyone from reaching triple digits anywhere across the state. Of course, it felt warmer with the combination of heat and humidity, but even the heat index values were below triple digits as you can see on the second map.

Friday will see a further reduction in temperature with more cloud cover across the state and increasing chances of showers/storms, particularly for the more western counties. At least that combination should keep us in the 80s to near 90. We will also have brisk southerly winds so our nights will not be cooling off much with morning lows generally in the 70s for tonight.

Also, conditions aloft will become more favorable for showers/storms to be developing as we go through the weekend and well into next week. Southerly winds will maintain warm, humid low-level air in place, but chances in the pattern aloft will allow a weak boundary to move to about the OK/KS state line before becoming diffuse. More importantly, those changes aloft will also create more favorable conditions for showers/storms to be forming with most of what happens on Friday to be primarily over the more western counties, but becoming more likely statewide starting Saturday and continuing for at least several more days after that.

As you can see on the forecast page, we have a good chance of showers/storms on just about every day through the forecast cycle. Also, the mostly cloudy skies along with brisk southerly winds will maintain a rather short thermometer with morning lows generally around 70 or more and daytime highs generally in the mid-80s. Obviously there will be some day to day variation due to placement and timing of the daily chances of rain, but certainly not as hot as the last few days have been so some relief in that respect.

Also, the daily chances of rain could end up producing some decent totals by the end of this forecast cycle. As you can see on the 7-day QPF map, much of the state stands to pick up several inches with locally much higher amounts possible for the more western counties. We are NOT anticipating a repeat of last May, but there will be the potential for some localized drainage issues if these QPF amounts verify.

This more unsettled pattern may well extend beyond the Father's Day weekend as you can see on the 6-10-day outlooks. It certainly suggests an above normal chance of rain during that outlook period along with near-normal temperatures which translates to upper 80s during the day by that time of year.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot