Increasing Temperatures

Thursday, August 21st 2014, 4:25 am

By: Alan Crone

It looks like we're moving into the hottest part of the summer for eastern OK for the next few days. A mid-level ridge of high pressure will expand and intensify across the eastern third of the state allowing our highs to approach 100. Humidity values will be nearing the 103 to 105 range. Overnight lows will stay around the mid-70s. These conditions will be close to heat advisory or warning criteria but may fall just shy. Regardless, you should prepare for a rather warm stretch of weather with very little chance of rain or storms in our part of the state. The upper ridge will weaken and slide east to southeast early next week. A southwest upper air flow will brush northwestern OK this weekend with a few showers or storms in these areas, but I anticipate all of this activity to remain removed from our area. The next significant change will occur during the middle or end of next week with a cold front nearing the state around either Wednesday or late next week with rain and storm chances. Temperatures will also drop as the system nears the region.

The EURO and GFS are different regarding the middle of next week. The GFS attempts to weaken and slide the ridge east-southeast while another upper trough nears the southern-central plains Wednesday. The EURO seems to keep the ridge in place for a longer period and wouldn't offer any boundary or change until late next week. Both models have been struggling with run to run consistency for this time period.

The official Tulsa high yesterday was 95 recorded at 4:27pm. The normal average high is 93 and the low 71. Our daily records for today include a high of 106 from 1936 and 1916. The daily record low is 54 from 1950.

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Alan Crone

KOTV