Cold & Wet Tonight, Could Get Interesting.

Our weather still looks interesting for the overnight hours of tonight as another system moves overhead and then quickly on eastward for Thursday. Temperatures near the surface will be such that we should have mostly rain for the early night, then potentially a mixed bag of rain/snow, and possibly a brief opportunity for all snow. Fortunately, amounts will be light and what snow does fall should be less than an inch if even that much.

This system is moving quickly on eastward in the NW flow aloft so that our skies should be quickly clearing during the morning hours and we will have lots of afternoon sunshine. As a result, temperature should moderate rather nicely to at least the 50 degree mark or so after starting off near freezing. Our winds will be light northerly first thing in the morning, then somewhat light and variable for much of the afternoon.

That will be followed by brisk southerly winds for Friday and the warmest day so far this month. After starting the day near freezing we should make it into the 60s that afternoon. Temperatures will likely be somewhat limited by an extensive band of high level cirrus clouds which will precede the next storm system which will be arriving on Saturday.

The Saturday system currently looks to be cold and wet with brisk northerly winds and overcast skies all day. However, it also appears that surface temperatures will stay above freezing throughout the event so this just looks to be a cold, dreary sort of day. This system will also be moving on eastward rather quickly so that Sunday looks promising. We should have clearing skies by that morning and lots of sunshine along with a return to southerly winds for the afternoon. Daytime highs well into the 50s to near 60 are also expected which is close to normal for this time of year.

Monday and Tuesday look to be even warmer yet with brisk SW winds and lots of sunshine. The last time we saw temperatures at or above 70 was back on Feb 18, but we stand a good chance to be at least that warm for early next week.

Another cool front will arrive on Wednesday to knock temperatures back down and provide another chance of precipitation. Although it looks like we have plenty of moisture with this most recent system and several more coming our way that is not the case. Unfortunately, as the two maps on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet show, we are well below normal for the last 30 days and for the cool season to date. These next few systems will certainly help, but will not be the drought busters that we need.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot