Turning Colder This Afternoon and Tonight.

Quiet week ahead. Although a cold front will be arriving this afternoon, a pre-frontal trough has taken all the rain on into Arkansas so the actual front will be a dry one. Much cooler conditions will follow the cold front though with temperatures quickly falling into the lower 40s by early evening and below freezing to start the day on Tuesday. Notice the 24 hour temperature change from the OK Mesonet on the right to see the effect this boundary is having on temperatures. Gusty NW winds of 15-25 or more will make it feel even cooler for tonight and much of the day on Tuesday.

Also, some wrap around cloud cover will likely return during the overnight hours with some early morning clouds quickly giving way to mostly sunny skies by noon on Tuesday. Lots of sunshine is also expected for Wednesday with just some high level cloudiness and much the same for Thursday. Another weak boundary may try to move into the state on Thursday but will not amount to much more than a wind shift the way things are looking at this time.

A stronger cold front will be arriving on Saturday with some timing issues still to be resolved regarding whether it will arrive early in the day or that night. In either event, it looks like it will have very little moisture to work with and am keeping the weekend forecast dry for the time being. This system will be followed by what should be some pretty chilly weather for the first part of that following week as a rather strong surface high pressure ridge will be building down from Canada.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot