Earliest Freeze on Record This Morning.

Mighty cold start to the day. Notice the morning low temperature map so far this morning, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Near to below freezing temperatures are pretty common. In fact, Tulsa has officially set a new record for the earliest freeze ever as the morning low dipped to 32 around 6:30 this morning. And that was despite the lingering cloud cover that never did really clear out.

Speaking of which, the clouds will be thickening up during the day so not much sunshine is expected for the most part. There may even be a few sprinkles or a light shower, particularly for the more southern counties. The clouds together with a light northerly wind will keep us quite cool with a daytime high only reaching the low-mid 50s.

Those clouds will be clearing out for tonight, but our winds will be returning to a more southerly direction for the overnight hours. The southerly winds will counter-act the clearing skies to a certain extent, but temperatures will still be dropping back to near the freezing mark so tender plants will require protection again tonight.

After that, the rest of the coming week will be much warmer. Sunny skies and southerly winds of 10-15 mph should push temperatures well into the 60s for Monday afternoon followed by daytime highs in the 70s for Tuesday. Tuesday morning will also be much milder with morning lows in the 40s. A weak cool front should also arrive late Tuesday or that night, but will not have much moisture to work with. There may be an isolated shower or two for the extreme NE counties, but the main impact will be to shift our winds back to the NE on Wednesday. This will result in a bit of a cool-down with a daytime high near 70 under partly cloudy skies.

Our winds will quickly return to a southerly direction on Thursday as the high pressure ridge shifts rapidly on eastward. Temperatures are expected to be in the 50s Thursday morning and in the 70s that afternoon. Moisture will also be returning and there will be at least a slight chance of showers/storms by later that day.

Friday and Saturday look to be more unsettled with a boundary setting up along the OK/KS state line and a more favorable flow pattern aloft. Will be gradually increasing the rain chances during that time frame as right now there is a lot of uncertainty regarding which day if not both of them will have the best chance. There will be the potential for some locally heavy rainfall as well as the possibility of some severe storms the way things are shaping up at this time.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot