More Wintry Weather!

Notice the image on the right which shows the total snow cover across the good ol' USA which gives some idea of the magnitude of the wintry weather over the past week. Another system is coming our way on Sunday followed by yet another, stronger system from late Tuesday into the day Wednesday. That will keep a lot of snow across a lot of the country for quite some time.

First things first and the system coming our way later tonight and Sunday does not look all that impressive at this time. But, there are always some surprises; for example the system this past Friday. At any rate, the problem Sunday is that a layer of warm air aloft may persist long enough for a period of freezing rain or sleet before making the transition over to snow. Fortunately, amounts are expected to be low and since the roads are for the most part snow packed and icy anyway, it should not make matters all that much worse than they already are. Most of the Sunday wintry mix is expected to be along and south of I-40 with the Tulsa metro on the northern fringes of this precipitation shield. Even so, another inch or two of new snow cannot be ruled out.

Monday will be a transition day with plenty of sunshine and some melting taking place along with a return to southerly winds by days end. Tuesday will see increasing cloud cover and a more easterly wind flow in advance of the next developing storm system. The timing and path of this system is questionable as it is still out in the Pacific at this time. However, the guidance so far has been quite consistent in bringing it on a favorable path for another significant winter weather event for us. If current indications play out, the path of heaviest winter weather should be a little further south this time around. Even so, much of the state could end up with another 5-10 inches of new snowfall. Much colder air will also accompany this system and linger into Thursday. After that, a moderating trend will be starting.

In fact, all indications are also consistently pointing to a pattern change that will take place over the weekend going into the next week bringing an end to this wave train of winter storms. That should result in much more moderate conditions and a more stable weather pattern.

As always, stay warm, stay tuned, and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot