Winds of Change

After an eerily pleasant Halloween and delightful start to November, some big changes are coming to Green Country. A low pressure system, gaining strength over the High Plains, will bring a strong cold front through our area late in the afternoon, Wednesday. Although severe weather is not a concern due to the lack of instability, strong winds are. Be sure to secure loose outdoor items, which could become airborne with the northerly wind tomorrow evening with gusts well over 40 mph. Even on Tuesday, wind gusts approached those levels throughout Oklahoma, shown on the map above.

Those winds will bring in sharply colder air. We could even be talking wind chill values Wednesday night! If that's not enough, a Winter Weather Advisory has been posted for the Oklahoma panhandle for a couple inches of snow with near white-out conditions. Brrrrrr! It seems a little early to be talking winter weather, but each storm system continues to chip away at our warmth until it becomes inevitable. Before I send you looking for your ski mask and snow shovels, you should know that it will be a brief spell of colder air before mild air returns this weekend. Without a doubt though, our weather pattern is a roller coaster ride over the next week.

After dipping to around the freezing mark Wednesday and Thursday night, our temperatures will rebound to seasonal averages for the weekend with some sunshine to enjoy. Another change arrives early next week with a stalled frontal boundary serving as a focus for significant rain here in Oklahoma. A soaking rain is just what the drought doctor ordered and hopefully that prediction will come true.

Hopefully, between all of this windy and potentially rainy weather, we can hang onto some of the nice fall foliage that has been revealed over the past week or two. We are getting into the peak season for fall colors in eastern Oklahoma and don't won't all the leaves scoured from the trees so soon!

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