Turning Wet and Cool

We made it through our first substantial severe weather episode of the season, and managed to escape without any tornadoes! Now, our attention turns to several wet and chilly days ahead.

Saturday turned out pleasant with plenty of sunshine across the Tulsa area. Clouds are on the increase Saturday evening and that will give way to a rainy Sunday. A trough in the jet stream to our west is sending a wave of energy our way. It will draw up some Gulf moisture, but not enough warmth to sustain strong or severe thunderstorms in our area. A few showers may occur as early as midnight in Green Country. Those scattered showers will be with us in a limited extent in the morning before a steady light to moderate rain surges north into our area by afternoon. See the first graphic for the timeline. The rain won't drastically help our growing drought situation (see 2nd map), but some places may end up with half an inch or more!

That rain will keep our temperatures 15° cooler than normal in the afternoon. It would be a good day to plan indoor activities, and perhaps, use up any remaining firewood from the winter! A secondary wave of energy arrives Monday, bringing a continuation of the wet, cool, and cloudy weather.

After that, we can count on spring warmth returning quickly. By Wednesday, our temperatures go back above normal into the mid-70s. 80s are possible by Thursday afternoon. The warmth returns first, then the moisture, and finally, a storm system may enable those ingredients to turn into strong or severe storms by next weekend. That's a ways off from when I write this, of course, but ‘tis the season.

Fortunately for our state, a tornado has yet to touch down in 2014. A brief tornado was reported in Chautauqua County, KS (just across the border), but no tornadoes in Oklahoma as you can see on the third map. At this point, that's fairly unusual, and the National Weather Service office in Tulsa is amidst one of their longest droughts on issuing Tornado Warnings. Few of us are complaining about that! However, we can't let our guard down… within a month, we will be at the heart of our tornado season.

Enjoy the much-needed rain! Be sure to follow me on Twitter: @GroganontheGO and like my page on Facebook if you enjoyed this blog post!