December-Like Weather Returns

The past several days in Oklahoma have been reminiscent of early spring with mild temperatures and rainy spells. In fact, Wednesday felt downright muggy with dewpoint values around 60° and air temperatures over that. The map to the right shows just how mild we got on Wednesday. Many locations in central and southern Oklahoma came within a hair of 70°. Temperatures in Green Country ran at least 15° above normal with morning lows still above the average high temperature for this time of year! I hope you enjoyed the warmth between the periods of rain and drizzle!

Rainfall wasn't quite as impressive, although nothing to dismiss. Many areas only picked up 0.3" or less, but a few locations picked up over 2.0" of rainfall over the past couple days, mainly in an area from Muskogee to Stillwell.

As I write this, heavy thunderstorms are pushing through southeast Oklahoma, on their way out of the state. This final wave will usher in drier, cooler weather overnight into the day Thursday across our region. This means, the latter week period will feel a bit more like December with highs around 50 and lows at or below freezing.

Just as we settle into some nice quiet weather another similar storm system will be waiting in the wings. This system's track might be a little further south, but just as potent. At this point, the track would bring rain into the region late on Sunday and keep temperatures in the 40s for most of the event. However, a shift to the south could allow colder air to seep into our region, spelling winter weather concerns. Right now, the most likely scenario for snow would be Monday night as the low pressure system pulls out and colder air wraps in behind. This would appear to affect areas along and north of Highway 412. However, the system is still a number of days out and plenty could change.

This system of course would be impacting our weather on the week leading up to Christmas, which leads many to wonder, could we have a White Christmas this year? In my next blog entry Thursday, I'll talk about our chances of that occurrence.

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