Cool and Dry....For Now!

I was raised on a dry-land farm in western Oklahoma and am old enough to remember very well the drought years of the 1950s. Some of you may have heard this one before, but a friend of mine who was also raised on a farm out west reminded me of a joke that makes the rounds from time to time. It goes like this: "You remember the Biblical account of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain? Well, we only got ½ inch from that." That may be a humorous story, but that has all too often been the case this year, and for some locations much longer than that. The map on the right shows the total amount of moisture that has been received for this year and it clearly shows how dry the west has been and how wet the eastern counties have been so far this year.

As mentioned in a previous blog, this also happens to be the wettest time of the year for much of the state and there will be a good chance of showers/storms out west as well as for us later this week. Unfortunately, it will be too late for the wheat crop this year.

Before that system gets here, we will be flirting with near record level morning low temperatures as our nights will be clear and the winds will be light. During the day, a continued northerly wind flow through Tuesday will keep re-enforcing the cool air that is in place. The winds will not be quite as strong and we will have lots of sunshine so temperatures will be slowly rebounding during the day. Even so, we will be below normal with respect to temperatures until later in the week when gusty southerly winds will bring warm, humid air back over the state.

The next storm system approaching from the west looks quite strong and since it will be moving so slowly we will have repeated chances of showers and storms for later in the week and the way things are looking now right on into the coming weekend. There may even be a few storms by early Wed morning if the low level jet can tap into enough moisture, but that is only a slight chance.

Better chances are expected for Thu, Fri, Sat, and quite possibly into the following week. The wind pattern aloft suggests a much more unsettled pattern will persist with repeated rounds of convection and all modes of severe storms possible. Locally too much rain may also become an issue. It is far to early to get too specific as the details will probably not become evident until a day or two in advance of each event.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates as the latter part of this week could become very interesting.

Dick Faurot