Warm & Humid East, Hot & Dry West.

There was just enough cloud cover today which together with the higher humidity levels, wet soils, and green vegetation managed to keep us below the 90 degree mark. Speaking of the higher humidity levels, the map on the right from the Ok Mesonet shows the minimum relative humidity during the time of maximum daytime heating. Notice the sharp E-W gradient along I-35 with relative humidity levels in the 50-60% range or more to the east and relative humidity levels dropping to around the 5% level further west. At the same time we had temperatures in the 80s and the western counties were in triple digit territory. They just cannot get a break.

The next few days will see more of the same with hot, dry conditions for the western half of the state and warm, humid conditions for the eastern half. The humidity together with gusty southerly winds will keep temperatures from cooling much at night as our overnight lows will only be dropping into the upper 60s and lower 70s through Wed morning. Daytime temperatures will top out in the upper 80s and lower 90s under fair to partly cloudy daytime skies. This combination of heat and humidity could produce an isolated storm or two, but the chances will still be in the slim to none category till Wednesday when the next storm system will be approaching.

Gusty southerly winds in advance of this system will ensure there is plenty of moisture in place and we expect showers and storms to be developing by later Wednesday. The timing of the actual cool front is still somewhat uncertain as the longer range guidance continues to exhibit little spatial or temporal continuity. At any rate, we should be seeing increasing chances of storms by Wed evening through the overnight hours and into the day Thursday. Some of these will likely be severe.

That will be followed by a return to more seasonal temperatures with northerly winds and perhaps some lingering showers right on into the weekend. The upper level flow will be more amplified for the latter part of the week and the coming weekend with a strong system spinning around just east of us. This is where the continuity problems really start to show up as the longer range guidance is all over the place regarding this particular feature. The bottom line will be to keep us at or below normal with respect to temperatures for the latter part of the week and through the coming weekend along with occasional chances of showers.

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

Dick Faurot