Tuesday Morning Update

Good morning.  The fast moving short wave that produced some accumulating snow across far northern OK and southern Kansas is now east of the state this morning.  The cloud cover associated with this system has cleared from the west to east during the last few hours allowing temps to drop into the lower and middle teens across NE OK.  We're in the running for a sunny day with highs in the mid-30s.  A number of locations should finally reach the 33 to 37 range for a few brief hours this afternoon before dropping below freezing shortly after sunset tonight.  The RAW data is not very encouraging and keeps most of the area right around 32 for the afternoon.  I'm inclined to stick with a high  above freezing today.  We'll be mostly sunny and dry through Thursday before another system approaches Friday.  

The Tulsa metro experienced some light snow last night around the 8pm to 9pm hour with a dusting in some locations.  Areas along the OK-Kansas state line including Bartlesville picked up over 2 inches of snow and a few locations across Osage, Pawnee, and Washington counties recorded about 3 inches of new accumulation.  A number of communities in southeastern Kansas received accumulating snow in the 2 to 3 inch range from Sedan to Independence to Coffeyville.   

We're in decent shape until the end of the week.  The Friday system will bring a chance of rain to eastern Ok and western Arkansas.  This is not a done deal.  NAM is now arriving with most of the system southeast of our region, but EURO still attempts to bring most of the precip across eastern OK. The only chance this system has at producing wintry weather will be for the pre-dawn hours Friday as temps will be slightly below freezing at the surface.   Therefore we're forecasting a chance for some rain Friday midday to afternoon with temps in the upper 30s to near 40.  If the system arrives faster than advertised, then we may be dealing with a minor freezing rain event Friday morning.  But the likelihood of this scenario proving correct is very low.  The actual chance for rain Friday remains near 40 to 50% and this may be too optimistic.  The wrap around on the back side early Saturday morning may produce a few snow flurries or brief snow showers but I will refrain from adding any 10% pops to the Saturday morning forecast at this point.  

Temperatures this weekend should be chilly but above freezing for daytime highs and into the 20s for overnight and morning lows.  

The official high in Tulsa yesterday was 28 recorded at 12:38am.  Most of the afternoon temps yesterday remained near 26.

The normal daily average high is 50 and the low is 30.

Daily records include a high of 74 from 1996.  The daily record low is 3 recorded from both 1919 and 1917. 

You'll find me on Facebook and Twitter. 

I'll be discussing the forecast on numerous Radio Oklahoma News Network affiliates across the state through the noon hour today. 

Thanks for reading the Tuesday Morning Weather discussion and blog. 

Have a super great day! 

Alan Crone

KOTV