Another Chance of Storms Thursday Night.

Was busy with Kids Kamp at Camp Tulakogee (www.tulakogee.com) on beautiful Ft Gibson Lake last week. Back in time for a rather active weather pattern for this time of year as the storms last night certainly packed quite a punch. In fact, best anyone can tell the official observation station out at Tulsa International Airport set a record with a 76 mph wind gust during the height of the storm. That stands as the strongest wind ever observed at that location and is certainly representative of the high winds and damage that they caused at many locations.

There was also some decent rainfall amounts for many as the map on the right shows, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. On top of those rains comes another possibility of showers/storms for late Thursday night/Friday morning. The second map on the right shows the QPF through that time period and we stand to pick up another inch or two in a short period of time which could also produce some localized drainage issues. Notice that the heavier rains are expected for NW OK which will certainly be a blessing for them as they have pretty much missed out on most of the rainfall over the last few years, let alone the last few weeks.

This more active pattern also keeps temperatures in check as our daytime highs are expected to be below normal through the weekend and into the coming week. Normal daytime highs at this time of year would be around the 94 degree mark and we expect to be in the 80s to lower 90s until the middle of next week when things should start warming up again. By the way, this is quite a change from the triple digits we were enduring at this time last year and the year before that.

Our nights will also be more pleasant with morning lows in the 60s to lower 70s through the weekend as opposed to near 80 such as we had yesterday. Our winds will be from a more E to NE direction next few days which also helps keep temperatures in check.

Another chance of showers/storms may be back in the forecast for early next week as well. All in all, this more active weather pattern helps to keep the extreme heat from building back over us. Of course, we still have the month of August to go through so there will no doubt be a few more triple digit days in our future, but certainly nothing like previous years.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot