Cold Start for Tuesday Followed by a Warming Trend.

The image on the right from the Oklahoma Mesonet shows the location and amount of rainfall over the last 24 hours. The rain was certainly a blessing, just too bad that the western counties did not receive those beneficial rains as well. The system responsible for those rains is gradually moving on eastward and will be taking the clouds on east with it. As a result, we expect our skies to be clearing from west to east during the overnight hours and those gusty northerly winds to be subsiding shortly after sunset.

That means a clear, cold start to the day on Tuesday with temperatures in the 20s to near 30 and a heavy frost most locations. Some patchy fog will also be possible given the light winds and residual moisture from the rainfall.

After that, mostly sunny skies and a nice rebound is expected for the afternoon hours when temperatures should reach the 50s to perhaps even the lower 60s. Together with light southerly winds, that should make for a pretty nice Tuesday.

Increasing southerly winds for Wed and Thu will really warm things up as we should be well into the 70s both days and possibly even near 80 Thu afternoon. Moisture will be quickly returning so we will also have partly cloudy skies and temperatures well above normal at night as well. This will also help to keep our relative humidity levels from totally bottoming out, but the gusty winds and very warm temperatures will still result in an enhanced fire danger situation for the latter part of the week.

A weak front will drop into the state on Friday but temperatures will still be well above normal going through the weekend. The front itself now looks to be dry but conditions should become more favorable for at least a slight chance of showers or storms for the weekend and into early next week. In fact, the rather tranquil pattern dominating much of this week will likely become more unsettled as the wind pattern aloft transitions from a zonal, west to east flow, to a more amplified flow in which disturbances will start coming our way from the SW. But, that is for next week and between now and then, much of this week is looking pretty nice all things considered.

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

Dick Faurot