Looking Mighty Nice in the Days Ahead.

As mentioned yesterday, any showers today were expected to remain pretty much NW of the I-44 corridor and that is basically what happened as the 24 hour precipitation map, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, shows. Any additional showers or storms in the days ahead will be pretty much somewhere else as well since our rain chances are basically in the slim to none category going through the coming weekend and into the following week. Quite frankly, many of us could use a good rain as the statewide map showing rainfall for this calendar year has most locations well below normal. In fact, the official site out at the Tulsa airport has Tulsa more than 10” below normal for the year to date.

For several days now, the longer range guidance has been suggesting a more unsettled period starting about this time next week so the middle to latter part of next week may bring some badly needed moisture. That is beyond the forecast time frame of our usual 7 day QPF maps, so will wait and see how consistent this more unsettled pattern is in the coming days before getting too excited about our rain prospects.

So, all the above means that the main forecast elements are temperature and wind. As mentioned yesterday, the low level moisture from the Gulf of Mexico is basically cut-off from E OK as the trajectory is currently into far S TX and the Rio Grande before turning northward. Although our dew point temperatures will be slowly rising in the days ahead, they will still be generally in the 50s which makes for a quick cool-down during the evening and overnight hours followed by a nice warm-up during the day with just some occasional passing high level clouds. Our overnight lows will be in the mid-upper 50s for the next few days and rising somewhat into the low 60s over the weekend. Our daytime highs will be generally in the low to perhaps the mid 80s through the weekend and into next week as well.

Notice the max/min temperature map for today, also courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Mighty nice day today and those numbers were a bit below normal for most locations but will be running a few degrees above normal in the days ahead. Our winds will remain light and generally from the S or SE at 10 mph or less during the day and even less at night.

So, enjoy this very pleasant early fall weather while it lasts as a more interesting pattern may be developing by this time next week.

Dick Faurot