We had a pretty good area of rain move across the state last night. Looking at the Oklahoma mesonet, most sites saw rain. Rainfall totals ranged from almost nothing to nearly an inch and a half. On a side note, since January 1st, we’ve seen over eleven inches of rain at Will Rogers World Airport. That’s more than two inches above normal!
Last night’s rain in Texas and Oklahoma makes today’s forecast more complicated. Cloud cover reduced the amount of afternoon heating, which limits our instability somewhat. Behind a complex of thunderstorms, you get an area of sinking air (remember–air has to rise to get clouds and rain.) There is very little convergence at this point.
The above factors should keep the chance for rain in Oklahoma City down through later tonight. Western Oklahoma has been clear, temperatures are in the 80s and we are starting to see cumulus clouds go up in northwestern Oklahoma and the eastern Oklahoma panhandle. These will try to develop into thunderstorms later this afternoon and tonight. If storms are able to develop, they could become severe with large hail and damaging winds. This part of the state has the lowest dewpoints, but moisture should be sufficient for a few storms.
An upper level low pressure area will move toward the state tonight, and over the state tomorrow. This will push a cold front and dryline across the state on Wednesday. Showers and thunderstorms will develop to our west and southwest and will move east and northeast across the state. Severe weather will be possible with the main threats being large hail and damaging winds. We could see isolated tornadoes near the track of the upper low tomorrow afternoon. Locally heavy rainfall will also be a threat.
The weather should quiet down for the latter part of the work week.
Andy
Looks like we are going to get ripped off on severe weather AGAIN!!!! Argh..
Haha.. Ripped off on severe weather.
Let’s try to be thankful we have not been killed by a tornado.