Bitterly Cold Air Invading The State

Wednesday, January 7th 2015, 4:48 am

By: Alan Crone

The extremely cold arctic air-mass continues to settle across southern Kansas and northern OK this morning as strong north winds increase speeds across the state. Temperatures in the lower to mid-20s now will continue to drop into the upper teens before leveling off in the upper teens to lower 20s across the northern third of the state. Readings may be slightly warmer across southern OK, but not by much. Wind chill values are continuing to drop with some locations expected to see sub-zero readings for a few hours this morning. Our friends at the National Weather Service have issued a wind chill advisory for the northern half of the state. Additional advisories will more than likely be required for early Thursday morning and could be expanded southward into portions of east central OK. You are encouraged to limit outdoor exposure today and tomorrow morning due to the combination of arctic air and strong north winds. Additionally, a few snow flurries may be experienced for a few hours this morning into midday in a few locations.

An exceptionally strong surface ridge of high pressure will move southward near the state later this afternoon and wind speeds will gradually diminish for the late afternoon and early evening period. Clear sky, dry air, and very cold temperatures will allow single digit readings into the Tulsa metro and points northward. Wind chill values will be even lower Thursday morning compared to this morning, but wind speeds will be lighter than this morning. The surface temperatures Thursday morning will start in the single digits.

Thursday morning south to southwest winds will quickly increase as the surface ridge moves away from the region. The southwest surface winds may help to bring the afternoon highs back above freezing for a few hours with mostly sunny conditions, but another front will bring the sub-freezing temps back into the area Thursday night into Friday. We anticipate staying below freezing during the day Friday across the northern third of the state along with northeast winds at 15 mph.

The weekend continues to offer two distinct waves near the region. The first one appears too far south to impact most of the area, but some precipitation may be possible along the Texoma region of southeastern OK and northeastern Texas. This could occur late Friday night into Saturday midday.

The second wave may have a slightly better chance of impacting the far eastern third of the state late Sunday night into Monday. We have continued to keep this pop around 20% with the higher likelihood remaining along the OK-Arkansas state line region eastward. The thermal profile would support some light wintry mix and possibly some light freezing rain. Again, the Tulsa metro chance remains very low for Sunday night, but not zero.

It appears the below normal temps will more than likely remain into most of next week.

Thanks for reading the Wednesday morning weather discussion and blog.

Have a super great day!

Alan Crone

KOTV