Warmer Sunday, Colder Again Monday.

After a cold start this morning, Sunday will be warmer before another cold front arrives on Monday to cool us back down. Temperatures this morning were some of the coldest we have seen so far this season as the map on the right shows, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. With only some of those high, thin cirrus clouds around today, there will be plenty of sunshine and together with southerly breezes temperatures should reach the mid 50s this afternoon.

Tonight will be clear, but not as cold as those southerly breezes will continue through the overnight hours and temperatures to start the day on Sunday should be about 10 degrees warmer than was the case this morning. Sunday will also see a lot of sunshine along with brisk southerly winds so look for daytime highs to be in the mid 60s which is well above normal for this time of year.

Temperatures on Monday will be a little tricky as the next cold front will be arriving in the NW counties Sunday night, but will be rather slow to push on through the state during the day Monday. Also, there will be some limited moisture available so we will have partly cloudy to mostly cloudy skies for much of the day, but only a slight 20% chance of showers. What showers we do have will be most likely in the more eastern counties, and even there what falls will be on the light side. The combination of more cloud cover and the cold front moving through and shifting our winds back to the N by late morning or early afternoon should result in the warmest time of the day occurring before Noon followed by falling temperatures for the rest of the day.

Tuesday will then start off clear and cold with lows back in the 20s along with a brisk northerly wind during the day to keep daytime highs only in the 40s to near 50. After that, a gradual warming trend is expected for the rest of the week as our winds return to a southerly direction. By late in the week and going into the coming weekend, our daytime highs should be back into the 60s. However, moisture return will be rather meager so although some clouds will also be returning in time for the coming weekend, our rain chances still look to be in the slim to none category for the forseeable future.

In fact, we still do not see a system coming our way anytime soon that would provide a decent shot at moisture, let alone some run-off moisture that would put water back in our lakes, streams and ponds. Seems like every time we do see something coming our way that looks promising, by the time it reaches us the deeper, quality moisture is shunted off to the east and we are left with only scattered, light shower activity and not the moisture that is so desperately needed. Bottom line is we are entering the driest time of the year with a serious, widespread drought already in place and virtually no prospects for any improvement anytime soon.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot