Cold and Windy Today, Warmer Later in the Week.

Notice the total precipitation map on the right over the last several days, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Won't do much to help with the drought situation, but every little bit is appreciated. Now that the storm system of the last few days which has produced everything from hail to drizzle to snow is moving on eastward, our weather will be entering a more settled period for the beginning of the week.

In fact, after any lingering flurries this morning move on out we may even get to see a few rays of sunshine late this afternoon.

Those strong NW winds today are keeping us quite cold with afternoon temperatures struggling to even make it to the 40 degree mark. The winds will settle down somewhat overnight and together with the clearing skies will result in morning lows dropping into the low-mid 20s. Monday will start off with lots of sunshine, but another system rotating around the major storm center to our east will likely result in partly cloudy to at time mostly cloudy skies by afternoon. Also, brisk NW winds of 10-20 mph will keep daytime highs only in the lower 40s which is actually pretty close to what our normal overnight low would be at this time of year. To put those numbers in perspective, the normal diurnal temperature range for this time of year is 65/42 for the high/low respectively.

As the week wears on, temperatures will be climbing back toward those more normal values, but it will take a while. Tuesday will also be much below normal with morning lows in the 20s again and daytime highs only in the 40s to near 50. By Wednesday, our surface winds will finally be returning to a more southerly component which will help moderate temperatures considerably. Although Wednesday morning will also start off below the freezing mark, we should at least make it close to 60 that afternoon.

After that, the rest of the week will be much milder with morning lows in the 40s to near 50 and daytime highs into the 60s. Another weaker frontal boundary may make it this far south in time for the Easter weekend with more cloud cover and a chance of showers/storms. There are also indications of another stronger system affecting the state early that following week which would keep us on the cool side of things for that first week of April. Notice the second map on the right which shows the departure from normal temperatures for that week. There is a rather high probability that temperatures will average below normal during that week; let's just hope that we get better rainfall during that week than we have over this last cool week.

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

Dick Faurot