Warm and Windy.

As you can see from the Oklahoma map on the right, after the cold start to our day this morning, temperatures moderated quite nicely this afternoon. For the overnight hours tonight, temperatures will be a little tricky due to the fair skies and very low dew point temperatures. Ordinarily, that would spell another cold night, but our surface winds will be returning to a more southerly direction during the overnight hours with the stronger winds in the more western counties and lighter winds for the more eastern counties. That leaves open the possibility that some of the colder, more protected valleys in Eastern Oklahoma may make it back down to near the freezing mark while the more western counties an those locations more exposed to the winds will probably cool quickly this evening, then see temperatures become steady and may even rise a bit towards morning.

As we go through the day Friday, gusty S to SW winds will really help warm things up and we should make it into the 70s just about everywhere. The warmer temperatures along with the strength of the winds and a relative humidity which will be dropping into the 20% range during the warmest time of the day also spells an elevated fire danger situation.

A weak cool front will be arriving during the overnight hours of Friday night and stalling out near or just south of I-40. The NE winds and partly cloudy skies will drop temperatures, but we will still be warmer than normal for this time of year. Sunday will see an easterly wind component, mostly cloudy skies, and a chance of at least some light rain or showers and possibly even some thunder by Sunday night and into the day Monday. This combination will also result in somewhat cooler temperatures, but still above normal.

Much of the coming week looks rather tranquil at this time. Cannot rule out an isolated shower or two on just about any given day, but the wind pattern aloft does not presently support anything of significance coming our way until perhaps later in the week. So, at least for now, Spring Break Week is looking rather promising.

As always, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot