A Windy Wednesday

The pressure gradient will crank up today allowing surface winds to increase speeds from 20 to near 35 mph. Some gusts approaching 40 mph will be common to our west and northwest and a wind advisory has been issued for these areas. A wind advisory is currently not in effect for the Tulsa metro, but it's a close call.

 

Temperatures this morning are running about 7 to 10 degrees warmer compared to yesterday morning and daytime highs will be moving to near 90 today. The south winds will increase the low level moisture across the region during the next 48 hours and morning lows will continue to slowly move upward to near 70 while the afternoon highs will level off in the upper 80s or lower 90s.

 

The data supports a front getting closer to northwestern OK and south central Kansas by Thursday. We don't anticipate this boundary moving into northeastern OK but a few isolated storms are a very remote possibility late Thursday night into pre-dawn Friday before the boundary moves northward as a warm front into southern Nebraska. This boundary will take another trip southward by Monday or Tuesday and could enter our area bringing a round of showers or storms into the state early next week. Before hand, it appears the mid level of the atmosphere will remain capped ( layer of warm air aloft) that will suppress most if not all thunderstorm activity. While this will keep the severe weather threat away from the region, it also keeps much needed rainfall well north of our area. Each day that passes with no rain increases the likely hood of more problems this summer. May is the wettest month in Northeastern OK and we'll go down in the books this May as a very dry and warm month.

 

Yesterday's high: 86

Today's normal high: 81   Today's normal low:  61

Rainfall this month:  .15 

Rainfall year to date:  12.23   Normal year to date: 14.76 with a departure of  -2.53 year to date.

Sunrise today: 6:12AM   Sunset today: 8:30pm