Wednesday Morning Update

The heat continues. Surprise surprise.  We see no major changes in the next 7 to 10 days.  The temperatures will get even hotter today and tomorrow before coming down a few degrees into the weekend.  The mid-level ridge may briefly change shape and position this weekend but this will only knock the highs down a few degrees. 

Records may fall today and tomorrow across eastern OK as temperatures continue to climb a degree or two each afternoon.  The moisture content in the lower atmosphere was slightly higher yesterday afternoon and this acted to keep some locations along the OK-Ark state line around 99 to 100 but the temperature heat index value was near 107.  The temperature in Tulsa topped out officially at 103 from the airport, with Jenks Riverside hitting 104, and the downtown reading at the NewsOn6 hitting 108.  A south to southwest surface wind flow tomorrow afternoon could allow our temperatures to move into the 105 to 107 range at Tulsa International.  This means some locations in the metro could hit 110 Thursday and locations across western OK may go as high as 114.  Crazy stuff.  

The EURO continues to offer a solution of splitting the mid-level ridge into two separate chunks, but the space in between the ridge centers would still be dominated by a sinking compressing air mass and hot air.  The 850 mb temps using the EURO would support highs near 97 to 99 Sunday and Monday but the temps would move back to the 103 to 105 range for the middle of next week.  I'll probably lower the Monday readings from our previous numbers by one degree, but will keep the temps Tuesday and Wednesday around 102 to 103.

The models are continuing to hint at a tropical like wave sliding into Southern Texas Friday into the weekend but this will have no direct impact on our area regarding storm chances.  Stranger things have happened but it appears this will remain too far south.  We may see a few clouds sliding northward.