Cold Tonight Followed by a Warming Trend.

After the very pleasant weather over the weekend, today has served as a reminder we are still in January. Notice the 24 hour temperature change map on the right as of early this afternoon. Pretty typical of a January cold front but unfortunately, this system was also dry.

A similar situation is expected later this week when another cold front arrives on Thursday, but this system will also have very little moisture to work with. So, will only carry a very slight chance of rain with possibly even a few sprinkles on Wednesday and perhaps a few light showers on Thursday.

Between now and then, look for a clear, cold night tonight with overnight lows near 20 in Tulsa and colder outlying locations. Lots of sunshine and a return to light southerly winds should get us well into the 40s and possibly near 50 for the afternoon. Wednesday will see some early morning low level stratus clouds which should keep the overnight lows just above freezing followed by some afternoon sun and daytime highs in the 50s. If we see enough sunshine, there may even be some lower 60s.

Thursday is when the next cold front will arrive and that should be during the afternoon hours. Southerly winds and morning cloud cover will provide a very mild start followed by falling temperatures after the cold front arrives and the winds shift to the north. As mentioned, our rain chances are minimal with this system but it will return temperatures to more seasonal levels.

Lows in the 20s and highs in the 40s are expected for Friday and Saturday followed by another warming trend beginning on Sunday. That warming trend will continue into early of the following week.

As for our prospects of any moisture, there are hints of a stronger system aloft affecting the state during the Tue-Wed time frame of next week. As is often the case, systems at those time ranges are notorious for pulling flip-flops and that has already happened a couple of times. So far, it is just beyond the time domain of this forecast and hopefully we will have more reliable data to work with over the next few days. Also, hopefully it will turn out be a decent rainmaker for us.

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

Dick Faurot