Chance Storms Tonight, Cooler for the Weekend.

Notice the high/low temperature map so far today, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Overnight showers/storms that primarily affected the more NE counties kept the clouds slow to clear out and impacted temperatures for this afternoon. In contrast, far SW OK was close to 90 at the time of this map.

The extra heating out west is also helping to get some storms going that will then make a run into E OK during the overnight hours. Although those storms will be severe initially, they are expected to be weakening as they move east of I-35 during the overnight hours. However, another complex is expected to be developing in KS which would then be dropping this way during the late night and morning hours. Bottom line is that we will carry a decent shot at showers/storms for tonight and into the morning hours of Thursday.

That activity should then be waning during the morning with some redevelopment expected again late Thursday or that night. After those showers/storms move through by early Friday morning, it looks like we should be mostly dry through the weekend and well into the following week.

That is because a cool front will be arriving Friday morning and although this is not a very strong system it will shift our winds around to the N for Friday with only a slight chance of any additional showers forming after that. Also, a stronger surge of cooler air will be arriving Saturday night and nothing more than perhaps a few sprinkles are expected with that system.

There will be an impact on temperatures though. After making it above normal for only the second time all this month, the extra cloud cover and any lingering showers/storm should keep us in the 70s for Thursday. Northerly winds and lingering clouds will also keep us in the 70s on Friday. The cooler air will really make its presence known over the weekend with highs only near 70 by Sunday and morning lows dropping into the 40s Sunday morning and perhaps again Monday morning.

Early next week will see a return to brisk southerly winds and a warming trend with daytime highs back into the 80s by Tuesday. Our next chance of showers/storms now looks to be later next week.

In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot