Warming Trend.

Our day is getting off to a cold start with many locations at or below the freezing mark. The map on the right, courtesy of the OK Mesonet, shows the minimum temperatures across the state as of first thing this morning. The second map shows the number of hours below freezing, all of which would have occurred overnight. As you can see, temperatures only briefly dropped below the freezing mark for most of this side of the state.

After such a chilly start, look for a cool day today with afternoon highs in the mid-upper 50s which is pretty close to normal. We will also have lots of sunshine with just some occasional high level cirrus clouds. Brisk NW winds will become rather gusty during the day with gusts occasionally around 25 mph. That together with relative humidity levels dropping into the low 20% range will create an elevated fire danger situation.

The winds will quickly diminish after sunset and with generally fair skies for the overnight hours. Sunday morning will also get off to a cold start with temperatures near the freezing mark, but that afternoon will be warmer with highs well into the 60s under mostly sunny skies and a more westerly wind component. However, those winds will kick back up to around 10-20 mph, relative humidity levels will be dropping to between 20-30%, so another high fire danger day is anticipated.

Early next week will see strong southerly winds return, warmer temperatures, and an enhanced fire danger once again. However, the humidity levels will be gradually rising which should mitigate the fire danger somewhat.

By Wednesday, we expect to have mostly cloudy skies and a chance of showers or storms. The longer range guidance is coming into better agreement on a cool front arriving by early Thursday which should be accompanied by a good chance of showers and storms. However, the guidance diverges after that creating additional uncertainty for the Fri/Sat time frame. For now, will go with the cooler, drier solution although that is certainly subject to change as better, hopefully more consistent guidance becomes available over the next few model runs.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot