Warming Trend Next Few Days.

Our day started with temperatures 10-15 degrees below normal and many locations in the 30s as you can see from the map on the right courtesy of the OK Mesonet. After a nice rebound this afternoon we are still below normal with daytime highs near 70 as also seen on the map on the right. That will be followed by temperatures running 10-15 degrees above normal by Wednesday afternoon as gusty southerly winds kick in. By the way, the normal temperature range for this time of year is 74/52 for the high/low respectively.

The cool, dry high pressure ridge sitting over us that gave us such a nice day will be sliding on eastward tonight so a return to brisk southerly winds will start a warming trend on Tuesday. Light winds and fair skies this evening should result in a quick cool down after sunset, but light southerly breezes during the overnight hours should also keep us from getting much cooler than the upper 40s to near 50 to start the day Tuesday.

After that, a S to SW surface wind and a westerly wind aloft will result in a pronounced warm-up with daytime highs expected to be in the lower 80s Tuesday afternoon and the mid-upper 80s Wednesday afternoon. In fact, some of the more western locations could approach 90 before the day is over and for far southwestern OK, some locations may see triple digits. Also, the low level jet cranking up Tuesday night could produce a few isolated showers/storms for far NE OK and NW ARK for early Wednesday morning.

Our next cool front will be coming our way later Thursday, but it now appears that it will stall out along the OK/KS state line into the day Friday. Any showers or storms should be confined to those areas during that time frame. A stronger push to the cool front is expected to bring it on through the state early Saturday with a return to northerly winds and cooler conditions. In fact, it may well turn out to be even cooler than what I have on the extended forecast if some of the longer range products verify. We will also have more cloud cover and at least a chance of showers and storms through the weekend and into the following week.

So, a big time warm up over the next few days will be followed by below normal temperatures to end the month of April and a chance of showers or storms. In the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot