Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Brief Break Thursday; Rain Likely Friday, Saturday

As you can see on the rainfall map since midnight, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, there were a few showers that lingered into the early morning hours before everything moved on eastward. Also, the eastward movement of this system has been slower than forecast so the clouds were slower to clear out this afternoon.

Did get to see some late afternoon sunshine, but the clouds certainly had an impact on temperatures. Notice the max/min temperature map, also courtesy of the OK Mesonet, and the impact of the clouds is obvious.

Another strong but slow moving system will be headed our way later in the week bringing another good chance of showers and storms. But, we will have a break for much of the day Thursday with even more sunshine during the afternoon hours and warmer temperatures with highs pushing 80. The day will likely start off with some patchy fog and a low overcast, but that is expected to be burning off by late morning followed by lots more afternoon sunshine.

Storms, some potentially severe, are possible for the far western counties of the state by late afternoon, and some of those will try to make a run at us during the overnight hours. They will be weakening rapidly, but a few weak showers or a rumble of thunder is possible for Thursday night.

After that, the storm system aloft will be gradually drifting on eastward, spreading more cloud cover and better chances of showers and storms for the Fri/Sat time frame. Due to the slow movement, there will also be a chance of some showers/storms lingering into the day Sunday as you can see on our forecast page.

Total precipitation may exceed an inch for some locations, particularly for the more western counties, as you can see on the 3 day QPF map. Certainly hope that verifies for our neighbors out west as they desperately need additional moisture.

After that, it looks like a break as we head into the early part of next week.

Looking further down the road, the 8-14 day outlooks continue to have a pronounced signal suggesting below normal temperatures heading into that last week of April and also an above normal chance of showers/storms.

By the way, so far this month temperatures are averaging more than 5 degrees above normal, so we will see if that cool signal is enough to bring the monthly average closer to more seasonal values by the end of the month.

In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot