Windy and Extremely Warm.

The map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, shows the maximum winds recorded so far today across the state. It has obviously been a very windy day and those winds will remain quite gusty through the overnight hours tonight. That means temperatures will not be cooling off much tonight; particularly in comparison to how pleasant the last several evenings have been.

After topping out around 90 this afternoon, temperatures will only slowly fall this evening despite the fair skies as those gusty southerly winds will not allow the air to stratify as it does when the winds calm down. That means temperatures will only drop into the upper 60s or lower 70s to start the day Thursday.

A weak wind shift line will be moving across the state during the day Thursday, but should stall out just to the NW of the I-44 corridor. Not much of a temperature contrast with this boundary though and all indications suggest it will not be able to produce any showers/storms either. However, as the trough line approaches, our gusty southerly winds will subside during the afternoon and for those locations behind the boundary, the winds will shift to a more northerly direction. Ahead of this boundary, a low level stratus cloud deck should develop during the morning, thinning out during the afternoon. The effect is expected to hold our daytime temperatures into the mid-upper 80s which is still well above the normal of 81.

That boundary will quickly retreat to the north so gusty southerly winds will prevail again on Friday and right on through the weekend, including Memorial Day. That will keep our nights quite warm for this time of year with morning lows near 70 each day and our daytime highs will only be impacted by some occasional cloud cover. That means upper 80s or lower 90s will be the general rule through the weekend as well.

Our rain chances are still in the slim to none category through Memorial Day. After that, the longer range guidance is becoming more bullish regarding our rain chances for the Tue-Wed time frame. Both the GFS and the ECMWF are suggestive of some decent rainfall by then which we are badly in need of.

In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot