Enhanced Fire Danger Today.

Some lucky folks received a decent amount of rain last night as you can see from the rainfall map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. Unfortunately, the rains were rather spotty and the entire state is still in need of a good soaking rain event. The chances of that occurring anytime soon are pretty much in the slim to none category as any additional showers/storms will be few and far between.

However, the chances are non-zero so if you happen to catch a shower or storm during the coming week, count your blessings.

In the meantime, the weak front that produced what rain occurred overnight has dropped into far S OK where it will become diffuse over the next day or two. At least it has also brought some brief relief from the excessive heat as lows were in the 70s for a change this morning and our daytime highs should, for the most part, stay below triple digits this afternoon. Unfortunately, drier air will also be filtering in behind the boundary on the heels of a brisk NE wind which will be blowing at 10-20 mph this afternoon. We should also have mostly sunny afternoon skies and the relative humidity will be dropping into the 20% range. None of those factors are nearly as bad as yesterday, but given the dry soils and dried out vegetation, there will still be an enhanced fire danger through the afternoon and evening hours.

Fair skies, light winds, and the drier air will make for a very pleasant start to the day on Monday with most locations dropping into the 60s to near 70 to start the day. However, the sunny afternoon skies and light winds should also result in a rapid warm-up with daytime highs back to near triple digits. Triple digits are expected on Tuesday, but not the extreme levels we saw last week. Also, another weak system looks to be affecting the state later Wed and into Thu providing partly cloudy skies and at least a slight chance of showers/storms. That should also keep daytime highs at or perhaps just below triple digits going into the latter part of the week.

The dominant ridge pattern aloft that was largely responsible for the extreme heat of this past week will be weakening and setting up much further west in the coming days. That puts us more on the fringe of its influence so temperatures will still be much above normal, but not at the extreme levels of recent days. Also, that will provide for at least a very slight chance of a shower or storm on just about any given day during the coming week. As mentioned earlier, they will be spotty, but at least there is a chance.

So, stay cool, stay tuned, and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot