Dick Faurot's Weather Blog: Enjoy the Break, It Won't Last Long

Notice the rainfall over the last 24 hours as of late this afternoon, courtesy of the OK Mesonet. For the most part, the heaviest amounts were along and south of I-40 - an area that has really been pounded over the last two weeks and the last month.

Notice the respective rainfall totals across the state for those time frames and it is obvious there has been too much rain, and often coming too fast, and therefore those are the locations that have had the worst flooding so far.

Fortunately, we have had a brief break today and that should also extend into Thursday. But, don't get used to it as another round of showers/storms will be spreading this way once again starting on Friday and particularly impacting our holiday weekend.

The northerly winds and stratus deck certainly kept us on the cool side today with afternoon temperatures in the 50s and 60s, which is more like what our morning lows would normally be at this time of year. That stratus deck is expected to be breaking up overnight as drier air at the surface and aloft is spreading over us, but that is not to say that we will have clear skies. We were supposed to see at least some sunshine this afternoon and that did not happen, so any breaks in the cloud cover for later tonight and through the day Thursday are tentative.

Assuming we do get some cloud breaks, morning lows will be in the 40s to near 50, which will be close to record levels for this time of year. Then, assuming we do get some sunshine during the day, our afternoon highs will be in the 60s to near 70 as we will still have a NE wind helping to hold temperatures down.

Enjoy what sunshine we do have as clouds will have returned by Friday and not much, if any, sunshine is expected through Memorial Day itself. Easterly winds and at least a chance of showers will also hold temperatures down on Friday, but a stronger, more southerly wind will start to warm things up over the weekend as you can see on our forecast page.

Most of the showers or storms on Friday should be confined to the more western counties, but the activity will be spreading more eastward with time, and right now late Saturday through the day Sunday and into Monday looks to be the most active time frame.

There will be several rounds of showers/storms through that period with flooding rains a major concern and there may also be a few severe storms mixed in for good measure. Notice the 7-day QPF map for example and once again the southern part of our state is in the bulls-eye for locally heavy rainfall which would result in additional flooding issues.

As we head on into next week, things are expected to settle down somewhat, but that is a relative term. There will still be chances of showers/storms, but hopefully not as widespread, nor as intense, as we have experienced in recent weeks. Also, with all the moisture in the ground, it will certainly be warm and humid as we head into June.

By the way, the updated drought monitor will come out on Thursday. Will be interesting to see how that has changed for our state.

So, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot