Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Sunny, Cool Thanksgiving, Big Weekend Warm-Up

This day before Thanksgiving turned out to be pretty close to normal, despite a strong NW wind for most of the day. Notice the max/min temperature map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Now that the sun has gone down, so has the winds and Thanksgiving morning will start off with a very light northerly breeze, if there is any wind at all. As the day wears on a light SE wind will return, but only at 5-10 mph by afternoon. That will make for a very pleasant Thanksgiving Day, although a cool one.

Thanksgiving Day will start off with temperatures in the 20s and should top out in the upper 40s to lower 50s that afternoon. At least the light winds and abundant sunshine will make for a pleasant day. There will be some occasional cirrus type clouds from time to time but mostly sunny skies should be the general rule on into the coming weekend.

Stronger southerly winds and the sunny skies will result in a nice rebound for Friday with daytime highs well into the 60s after starting off that morning in the 30s. However, those southerly winds will be blowing at 15-25 mph and gusty which together with the low humidity levels and the dormant vegetation will create a high fire danger situation.

That will also be the case on Saturday with gusty southerly winds along with lots of sunshine, low afternoon humidity levels, and temperatures likely making it up around the 70 degree mark that afternoon. In other words, the fire danger for Friday and Saturday will be the main weather issue in the coming days.

Sunday will also be warm, at least to start the day but will not end that way as a cold front will be arriving late in the day shifting our winds back to northerly and bringing shallow, but cold air for Monday. Temperatures should still make it well into the 60s before the cold air arrives on Sunday, but Monday will be very different with a brisk NE wind, mostly cloudy skies, and daytime highs only in the low 40s at best.

However, this shot of cold air will be relatively short lived and a return to southerly winds along with rebounding temperatures is expected by Tuesday and Wednesday. Also, this does not appear to be much of a rainmaker with only a slight chance of light rain or drizzle on Monday the way things look now. Notice the 5 day QPF map which has E OK with only some light precipitation, if any at all.

Speaking of moisture, notice the 6-10 day outlook maps which continue to suggest a high probability of some decent moisture for drought stricken California and eastern OK and points on eastward. But, our drought stricken neighbors in W OK still look to miss out during that time frame. Temperatures, on average, still look to be above normal through that period as well.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot