Weekend is Looking Good.

As you can see from the map on the right, the rains this week have been generous and even the Panhandle has finally gotten into the act with enough rain to finally settle the dust. The drought situation has also been eased by this recent wet spell as shown by the second map on the right. Notice that the extreme W and Panhandle are in need of much more rainfall and are still in a serious drought situation.

The slow moving system that has produced the rains this week is finally going to move on out of here and just in time for the weekend. The lingering rain and showers for the overnight hours will be replaced by cloudy skies and possibly some drizzle to start the day on Friday. There is only a slight chance of a few additional showers for the extreme E counties by the end of the day.

Temperatures are a tough call for Friday since the cloud cover will be gradually thinning out as the day wears on. Right now, I am calling for the clouds to hang around long enough to keep us in the lower 60s. If we do clear out more quickly than that, then obviously the temperature will be even warmer.

After that, the weekend into early next week is looking mighty fine. Lots of sunshine is expected each day and our winds will be light and generally from a southerly direction. Morning temperatures will be cool to start the day Saturday, but getting warmer each morning after that. Our daytime temperatures will be tempered somewhat by the saturated soils and the vegetation that is starting to rapidly green up. As a result, I am keeping our daytime temperatures a bit below guidance as those two factors have a cooling influence that I feel is being underestimated by the numerical guidance.

A weak frontal boundary will be approaching along about the middle of the coming week and we will carry a slight chance of showers or thunder for that time period. Temperatures will remain much above normal for the foreseeable future though and that will carry us right on through the normal last freeze date which is usually at the end of the month. We do not currently see anything coming along that poses any additional freezing threat for the rest of this month nor going on into April. However, the caveat is that it is not unusual for a late freeze after a very mild March so we will see.

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

Dick Faurot