Weather Blog: A Six Star Wednesday Before Friday's System Brings More Rain
Patchy fog is affecting parts of northern Oklahoma this morning, with temperatures in the mid-40s. Once the fog and clouds clear, expect mostly sunny skies, with afternoon highs reaching the upper 60s in the north and low 70s in the south.
Tomorrow will bring partly cloudy skies, with highs again in the upper 60s to low 70s, before our next storm system approaches. While the exact timing is still subject to change, the system is expected to impact the area late Friday, exiting by early Saturday morning.
This means the weekend should be pleasant, with morning lows in the 40s and 50s and highs around 65 on Saturday and near 70 on Sunday. Another cold front is expected to arrive in the middle of next week.
Our next chance for rain:
The current upper-level pattern shows a trough across the Western U.S. and a surface ridge across the southeastern U.S. A low-pressure system developing in the Intermountain West will bring snow to the Rockies today, including some significant totals in the mountains.
As this low deepens tonight, it will increase shower and storm chances for the western half of Oklahoma Thursday night and Friday before bringing showers into the eastern half of the state, mostly Friday afternoon and evening.
Recent data indicates that the upper-level low may track farther west than previous model depictions. If the system remains farther west than expected the chances for Friday evening rainfall could decrease. We will continue to monitor the system’s progress and make any necessary updates.
Moderate to heavy rainfall is possible, especially across the western half of the state, while eastern Oklahoma may experience lower totals that may still be near 1 to 2 inches. Severe weather is expected to be confined to the Red River region of North Texas or even more south across central Texas. The storm system will exit the area early Saturday, bringing clearing skies and pleasant weather for the weekend.
Hurricane Rafael:
Hurricane Rafael is approaching Cuba as a Category 1 storm today, expected to re-emerge in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday and Friday. It will weaken as it moves toward southern Louisiana this weekend, and while it may influence the weather in parts of Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi.
Next week, a cold front will approach the state by Wednesday. There is a chance this tropical system may keep most of the deeper low-level moisture across the southern United States And could limit the number of showers or storms available for the midweek cold front.
If Gulf moisture is able to reach eastern OK before our midweek front arrives, higher chances for strong to severe storms may also return with the midweek system.
Emergency Info: Outages Across Oklahoma:
Northeast Oklahoma has various power companies and electric cooperatives, many of which have overlapping areas of coverage. Below is a link to various outage maps.
Indian Electric Cooperative (IEC) Outage Map
Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives Outage Map — (Note Several Smaller Co-ops Included)
The Alan Crone morning weather podcast link from Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/0dCHRWMFjs4fEPKLqTLjvy
The Alan Crone morning weather podcast link from Apple:
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