Fire Danger Today, Storms Possible Tonight.

As you can see from the map on the right, much of the good old USA is covered by a variety of watches and warnings, largely dealing with fire weather concerns and hazardous wind conditions. That obviously includes much of Oklahoma where a strong S to SW wind of 20-40 mph will create a very dangerous fire weather situation. As mentioned yesterday, the only saving grace we have is that at least the humidity will be higher than it was yesterday as dew point temperatures will be in the 60s today as compared to the 40s on Saturday. This, in turn, means the minimum relative humidity will be dropping into the 40% range during the heat of the day.

And it will be quite warm, if not hot, with daytime temperatures reaching the mid-upper 80s this afternoon. We will also have partly cloudy to at times mostly cloudy skies, but no mention of rain till later tonight. A strong, quick moving cold front will be moving across the state after midnight tonight and that will bring with it about a 50% chance of showers or storms. Some of these may be severe with winds and hail now expected to be the primary threats. At least, some of us will get some badly needed rainfall, but since the system will be moving through rather quickly, if you receive more than 1.4", count your blessings.

Monday will then be much cooler with gusty northerly winds and temperatures holding in the 50s under mostly cloudy skies for much of the day. The skies should be clearing by late afternoon and clear skies, light winds, and much drier air will be over us for Monday night. A frost and possibly even a light freeze will be possible for Tuesday morning, particularly in the normally cooler valleys.

After that, it is back to warm and windy for the rest of the week with a high fire danger pretty much every day. There may be sufficient moisture for at least a slight chance of late afternoon showers/storms for the latter part of the week as well. Still, no drought breaking rainfall is foreseen anytime soon.

As always, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot