Showers/Storms Today, Cooler Sunday/Monday.

Showers and some storms still look to be a good bet for this afternoon into the evening and early night time hours. Some of that activity will likely linger overnight and into the morning hours for the more E and SE counties as the actual cold front will not be arriving till early Sunday morning. Also, some of those storms, particularly for the more southern counties, will have the potential for becoming severe with primarily a wind/hail threat. Notice the 24 hour rainfall map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, which shows much of NW OK has received some decent rainfall overnight with those showers/storms.

As that activity moves eastward it will weaken some this morning, then strengthen during the afternoon and evening hours. As you can see by the QPF map on the right, we still are in line for perhaps as much as ½-1" of rainfall which will put another dent into the drought situation.

Gusty southerly winds today and tonight will keep us quite mild with daytime highs in the 60s today and holding in the 50s through the overnight hours. The actual cold front will then arrive during the morning hours of Sunday shifting the winds to the NW at 20-30 mph. Together with a lingering overcast and perhaps a few light showers, temperatures will more than likely be falling into the 40s following frontal passage and holding steady for the rest of the day.

Despite sunny skies, brisk northerly winds will make for a chilly day on Monday with morning lows in the 20s and daytime highs in the 40s to near 50. The rest of the week will see a gradual warming trend with daytime highs in the 70s expected by late week and into the coming weekend. Also, the coming week will be stable with lots of sunshine and no threat of additional rainfall. Our next rainmaker looks to be well after this forecast cycle so after a rainy day today, cooler conditions for the Sun/Mon time frame, some pretty nice Spring-like weather should be the general rule for the rest of the week.

In case you are wondering, the normal last freeze date around here is the end of March. Also, as a reminder, March of 2012 set a record for the warmest March on record. That will certainly not be the case this time around as the first week of March this year was more than 3 degrees cooler than normal.

Hopefully we will continue to get these periodic episodes of showers/storms to knock additional dents in the drought situation. We still need some run-off moisture to bring our ponds, lakes, and streams back to where they should be before the summer arrives.

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

Dick Faurot