Thunder Possible Tonight, Cool Again Tuesday.

After another round of scattered showers and perhaps even some thunder this evening and early tonight, the weather will be much more settled for the rest of this week. What does fall will generally be on the light side anyway although a few storms may occur with a limited hail potential. As you can see from the map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, the more SE counties received some decent rainfall Sunday and last night but most of the state missed out once again. The additional rainfall we receive tonight will be rather spotty and is not expected to add much to those totals.

The window of opportunity for additional showers/thunder will be primarily between about 5PM and Midnight with most of the activity on east of us by early Tuesday morning. That will be followed by lots of sunshine for the rest of the day Tuesday and for the next several days as well. Despite the sunshine, it will still be rather cool with daytime highs in the mid 60s expected again Tuesday afternoon after starting off in the low-mid 40s that morning. It will also be rather breezy with gusty NW winds and an associated enhanced fire danger.

A return to southerly winds and plenty of sunshine will really warm things up for Wed-Thu with daytime highs expected to be in the 70s to lower 80s. That will also result in a high fire danger situation both days. A weak boundary will try to make a run at us during the day Friday but will probably come up a little short. A shower or two may occur for the far NE counties late Friday and the extra cloud cover will likely keep temperatures in the 70s that afternoon. We should be well into the 70s again Saturday under partly cloudy skies and with a brisk southerly wind.

Our next chance for storms that would be more significant appears to be this coming Sunday. A much stronger system has so far been consistently projected by the longer range guidance for Palm Sunday. That system would have the potential for severe storms and possibly some locally heavy rainfall followed by another significant cool-down for early that following week. Another period of below normal temperatures looks to follow for much of the week leading up to and through Easter Sunday as well. Notice the 8-14 day outlook maps on the right and you can see that there is a rather strong signal for below normal temperatures for our area as well as a below normal signal for precipitation during that period.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot