Monday Morning Update

We expect another hot day with highs in the 99 to 103 range.  Any isolated storms will remain across far southeastern OK or possibly extreme west central OK.  Temperatures will climb to near 104 tomorrow before another minor cool down will arrive Wednesday into Thursday along with a few storms.  

The front moved across the area late Saturday evening bringing a few showers and storms to the region.  Some of your neighbors received a good soaking, but unfortunately, most of us, including this writer, received very little rainfall.  The rainfall lasted for less than 5 minutes at my location.  But every drop was appreciated.  

The temperatures yesterday were also another blessing as many locations stayed below 100 for the first time in week.  Northeast winds also advected slightly drier air across the NE part of the state giving us a nice Sunday midday feel.  Temperatures this morning range from the mid-60s to the lower 70s.   

The temperatures are expected to crank back up today and tomorrow, but the readings at 5K ft. are not expected to nearly as hot as last week.  This means the temperatures at the surface will be around 101 to 104 through midweek with morning lows dropping into the 70s.  Another weak upper level system will drop into the region Wednesday into Thursday with a chance of a few showers or storms.  This weekend the mid-level ridge of high pressure will be located to the west of our area allowing for a northwest flow pattern aloft across the state.  This means our approaching weekend may also offer some late night and early morning storms for our region.   

The fire danger will not be nearly as high as Friday and Saturday, but the danger will not go away anytime in the next week.  The state wide burn ban remains in effect. . It's inconceivable that a person would deliberately set a fire with the intention of creating a wild fire, but some county law enforcement officers indicated that a few of the big fires during the last 5 days have been the work of arsonists.   

A huge order of thanks is offered to our large contingent of men and women who have been fighting wild fires across the state during the last week.  There's no way every structure could have been saved during the massive wild fire attacks that occurred this weekend, but no doubt many more homes would have burned without the tireless efforts of our fire fighters.  To those who lost homes, farms, livestock, and much more, we offer prays of peace and understanding that may offer some kind of comfort.  There is no way we can understand what you have gone through unless we've gone through it with you.  Folks that live in Oklahoma are hearty people.  We've been through floods, tornadoes, droughts, famine, blizzards, and fires.  We've always managed to re-build and to rejuvenate our communities and families.  There is no doubt in my mind that our neighbors can bounce back from this set back, but they will need our help  Offering something as simple as a meal or maybe a donation to the Red Cross will go a long way.  Your act of compassion may give someone a point of light and hope in a very dark period of their life.