Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Rain Tonight, Some Sunshine For Weekend

Notice the rainfall map over the last few days as of late this afternoon, courtesy of the OK Mesonet; some decent totals, particularly in the western counties which need it the most.

More is on the way with light rain and showers off and on through much of the night tonight before it all comes to an end by early Friday morning. After that, the only chance of showers as we head into the coming weekend will be within a county or two of the Red River, so much of the state is expected to see a more spring-like weekend.

Just in time too as, according to the calendar, spring officially arrives at 5:45PM this Friday. We should get to see at least some sunshine by then as well, although it appears there will still be plenty of residual moisture keeping us with mostly cloudy to at times partly cloudy skies for Friday afternoon and through the weekend.

In fact, the clouds are the main wild card regarding temperatures this weekend as our winds will be light northerly for Friday and then light SE for Sat/Sun. With the SE wind component over the weekend, it will require full sunshine for temperatures to realize their full potential and am not thinking that will happen.

Even so, we should make it well into the 60s Friday and near 70 for Sat/Sun under the partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies. As you can see from the max/min temperature map, that will be a nice change from the cloudy, cooler conditions we experienced today.

Early next week promises to be warmer with stronger southerly winds, particularly by Tuesday when we may see some locations approaching 80. It also looks to be dry through that time frame until the next cold front arrives, and right now that should be during the day Wednesday.

This looks to be a fairly strong system with a chance of showers and storms along and ahead of the frontal boundary. That will be followed by much cooler conditions for the rest of the week.

The longer range guidance is on separate pages by then with one set of guidance suggesting the potential for some near freezing temperatures by late next week and another set of guidance suggesting a much more unsettled pattern with widespread showers or storms.

Given the recent flips in the run to run and model to model guidance, do not have much confidence in any particular solution at this time so will go with cooler and a slight chance of showers for now starting on Wednesday and continuing into the latter part of the week.

In the meantime, some nice spring-like weather will be the general rule just in time for our weekend. So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot