Much Colder, Chance of Wintry Precipitation.

Back to the real world. After the balmy conditions of Friday the map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, shows how temperatures have changed over the last 24 hours. For you folks in the more SE counties, that colder air is headed your way as well.

Gusty northerly winds, cloudy skies, and developing precipitation will keep temperatures from rebounding at all for the more northern counties where you folks can expect temperatures to remain near the freezing mark for the rest of the day. Further south, temperatures have already reached their maximum values and will be gradually dropping for the rest of the day with temperatures expected to be near the freezing mark by sunset. Northerly winds of 20 mph or more will also put the wind chill values into the teens for this afternoon/evening as well…..all in all, quite a contrast to yesterday's Spring-like conditions.

Also, some energy aloft will be quickly moving across the state today with snow developing over the more northern counties and rain changing over to snow or a wintry mix elsewhere as the day wears on. Although this is a rapidly moving system, snowfall totals could still approach a couple of inches for the counties along the OK/KS state line and on northward. Locations further south will see rain initially but as colder air continues to filter in there will be a window of opportunity for a transition to a wintry mix of rain/sleet/snow and possibly even some freezing drizzle tonight for NW Ark and extreme NE OK. The second map on the right is valid through Sunday morning and as you can see most of the precipitation will be further east of us. Although the amounts will be on the light side, there is still the potential for icing on bridges and over passes for this evening/night/Sunday morning.

After that, the rest of the coming week looks to be dry but cold initially, moderating by the latter part of the week. Although the skies should be clearing out during the day Sunday, temperatures will struggle to get above the freezing mark after starting off in the 20s. Monday and Tuesday mornings will likely see temperatures in the teens followed by daytime highs in the 30s. Temperatures will be rebounding by late in the week, but another cold front looks to be arriving over the coming weekend to re-enforce the cooler weather.

As far as our chances of any additional precipitation, another rapidly moving system aloft will spread some clouds our way Thursday with perhaps a few showers late in the day or that night, primarily for our more southern counties. Other than that, it looks like a dry forecast for the foreseeable future.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot