Drumming Up A Change

Our main weather issue remains the strong south wind combined with dry vegetation and relatively low humidity. These weather conditions have yielded an extremely high fire danger and these conditions will remain through the middle of the week before a storm system draws near the region with a chance of showers and storms. A major pattern change is underway which will eventually bring active weather back to the southern plains. The upper air pattern has finally shifted and will allow a trough in the west to move closer to the area by Wednesday and Thursday while a mid level ridge has now shifted to the southern half of the nation. This trough appears to reload through the middle part of next week. We think this upper air pattern will provide some much needed relief in the way of rain by the end of this week with another system possibly early next week. Our temperatures will be nearing the mid 70s today and tomorrow before moving back down below the seasonal average by the end of the week. Low level moisture in the form of 50 degree dew points will be approaching the southern plains Wednesday and Thursday. The upper air flow from the southwest will allow for the possibility of some strong to severe storms if the moisture can become deep enough before the trough approaches the area. Our best shot of active weather appears to be Friday, but there will remain some timing differences among the global models. A surface cold front will enter the area Wednesday before moving away from the state Thursday morning. A stronger front will slide near the region Thursday night and Friday before moving across the state Friday midday or afternoon. We expect the temperatures to drop below the seasonal average Friday with temperatures in the 60s. Buf kit data suggest an inverted temperature profile may be possible. This means the warmer readings Friday may occur during the morning with temps falling into the 50s during the afternoon. We'll not get too fancy with the temperature forecast for Friday at this point. Until we get significant precipitation across the state, our fire danger will be of the highest concern.

I had the pleasure of attending another Drumday Tulsa event Sunday at the J. Q Hammond arena on the campus of Union High School. Drumday Tulsa is an event that brings drummers of all ages and ability together in order to raise awareness and food for the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. Drummers are asked to bring at least 10 cans of food as an admission to the event while playing their drums for a few hours while attempting to set various world records, such as the largest number of drummers playing the same song at the same time. This year's event was well attended and once again several tons of food was donated by participants to help our community. This event was the brain child of Mike DePetrillo, a local drummer, who became aware of the hunger needs of our state. We are sadly accustomed to seeing video and pictures of third world men, women, and children in desperate need of food. But a large number of Oklahoma families are undernourished due to the lack of food. This is a shocking realization even in our state and town. Hundreds of school children go without food during the weekends and only find warm meals at school. Families from big towns and small towns are struggling due to the lack luster economy, a lost job, or some other unfortunate circumstances Mike DePetrillo, and his Drumday partners of Mat Donaldson and Greg Kocsak decided to do something about it a few years back and continue to put " feet to their faith" by serving others and helping their community. I encourage you to give to your local food bank this year as Thanksgiving approaches. Thank you in advance for your generosity.