Very Cool for the Rest of the Week.

Finally, a little time to put some thoughts down on paper regarding our recent weather. The two day total precipitation map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, will change in the next couple of days as snow melt eventually gets incorporated into the rain gauges for the more W and NW counties of the state. But, for the eastern counties it does show that we have received another good soaking with many areas picking up well over one inch of rainfall.

The more northern counties and along the OK/KS state line also received as much as 4" of snow on the ground. Much more than that probably fell, but due to the melting that took place, total accumulations only managed to reach the four inch mark. Much heavier totals occurred in NW OK where as much as 20" accumulated along with significant drifting of the snow.

Bottom line is that this event together with the one last week has put a pretty good dent in the ongoing drought situation. Notice I did not say the drought is over. Will take a look at the soil moisture in tomorrow's blog, but needless to say our soils are now wet. Problem is that the magnitude and extent of the drought was such that we still have not received enough moisture to recharge the ground water, springs, streams, rivers, lakes and ponds. What we need now is some run-off type moisture to fill our ponds and lakes back up.

The prospects for that occurring are in the slim to none category for the foreseeable future. We have basically a dry forecast for the rest of this week and through the coming weekend. Some systems will be coming our way that following week, but present indications do not suggest they have that type of potential.

So, the main challenge this forecast cycle will be temperatures. There are several complicating issues regarding temperatures as the clouds are trying to clear from W-E this afternoon but will likely fill back in for tonight. We should see more sunshine for Wed and Thu though before a stronger piece of energy drops over the state on Friday. That could even wring out a few snow flurries, but is not expected to amount to anything more than that.

So clouds will be one of the wild cards regarding our temperature forecast and the snow pack just north of us is the other. It will take awhile for all that snow to melt and since our surface winds will be blowing from the N and NW, then we will be immediately downstream from that extensive snow pack. That will serve to keep temperatures much below normal all this week and really not warming things up much till our winds return to a southerly direction. That will occur on Sunday, but not for long as another front is slated to arrive early that following week.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot