Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Quiet Weekend

You may be wondering: What Happened Today? Well, the threat of severe weather for our part of the state today never materialized due to one of the factors that was mentioned in yesterday's blog. At that time there was a concern about showers/storms in far N TX and S OK regarding how long they would last and their impact on locations further north. Turns out they persisted for even longer than anticipated and kept us cloudy and relatively cool.

Notice the rainfall map and the max/min temperature maps for today, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. You can clearly see the impacts those persistent showers/storms had along the Red River Valley. Not thinking anyone is going to complain too much about that.

By Saturday morning, the main storm system will be on east of us and our winds will be from the SW, resulting in clear or clearing skies. Westerly winds all day Saturday, together with lots of sunshine, also means temperatures will quickly warm with afternoon highs expected to be well into the 80s; may have to turn on the air conditioner before the day is over.

A weak cool front will arrive that night with a more NE wind for Sunday, which will knock our daytime temperatures back into the 70s, so not as warm but still above normal. Clouds will be on the increase late Sunday and another storm system will then be moving across the state during the Mon/Tue time frame. There are some uncertainties regarding the timing and location of this particular system but Monday looks to be the most likely day for showers/storms.

Given the time of year, there may be a severe threat as well, but current indications suggest that will most likely be much further south.

At any rate, there will be a chance of showers/storms by late Sunday night, more likely through the day Monday and, depending on how quickly this system moves eastward, should be ending during the day Tuesday. The cloudy skies, NE winds, and showers will also keep temperatures on the cool side for this time of year as you can see on our forecast page.

After that, the longer range guidance is in general agreement that the rest of the week will be quiet and that should extend into that following weekend as well. So, after several weeks of unsettled weather, which will extend through the early part of next week, a much more settled pattern looks to prevail for the rest of the week through the weekend.

Of course, the following week goes into early May, so don't count on the settled pattern lasting for too much longer than a week or so. The way this spring has been going so far, we will likely have several more bouts of unsettled weather as we head into May so stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot