Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: First Ozone Alert Of The Year Wednesday

As you can see from the max/min temperature map for today, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, temperatures did start off somewhat milder this morning with most of us in the low-mid 60s. But, lots of sunshine and light southerly winds produced a rapid warm-up with afternoon temperatures among the warmest of the year.

Wednesday looks to be even warmer with morning lows in the upper 60s or low 70s and daytime highs a couple of degrees warmer for the warmest so far this year. Dew point temperatures should hold in the 60s, which will result in relative humidity levels dropping to near 40% during the heat of the day. That combination will bring the heat index into the upper 90s to near 100, so be careful with the outdoor activities.

Also, our winds will be rather light with southerly breezes up to around 10 mph during the day, so not much of a cooling breeze. That also could result in some air quality issues with the combination of heat, humidity, and light winds and our first Ozone Alert of the year has been issued for Wednesday.

We should see a little more cloud cover during the day Thursday to potentially knock daytime temperatures down a degree or two and even more cloud cover going into the coming weekend. Southerly breezes will keep us very warm and humid, but conditions aloft will also provide additional moisture and chances of showers/storms this weekend. That should also knock daytime highs back a few more degrees.

As you can see on our forecast page, there will be at least a chance of showers/storms, mainly of the afternoon/evening variety, through the weekend and going into next week. Although a precipitation probability may not be specifically listed on the graphics for Wednesday or Thursday, the daytime heating may be sufficient to produce one or two very isolated late afternoon showers or storms over the more eastern counties. Again, the chances of that are less than 10% but they are also non-zero.

The real focus for showers/storms and potentially the heavier rainfall associated with them looks to be over the more western counties. Notice the 7-day QPF map for example which suggests the potential for several inches for the far western counties with lesser amounts on our side of the state. Extending that into the 6-10-day outlook, you can see there continues to be a signal suggesting above normal chances of showers/storms during that period along with near to above normal temperatures.

So, we will have summer-like weather in the days ahead with very warm, humid conditions and an almost daily chance of a shower or storm.

Dick Faurot