News 9 Weather Team Tracking Severe Storm Chances In Oklahoma

We're still tracking a severe weather threat for a good portion of Oklahoma Friday afternoon into the evening hours.

Most of us will just see a warm, windy and slight humid afternoon with temperatures climbing into the 80s. Winds in western Oklahoma could gust over 40 mph by late afternoon, so a little blowing dust couldn't be ruled out with a high fire threat. East of the dryline, including here in the OKC metro, our storm chances still look slight. But any storms that do form could become severe. 

Those threats would be in the form of large hail up to golf ball or tennis balls, damaging winds to 70 mph and we couldn't rule out the risk of a tornado.

There are a couple limiting factors with our chances of storms and severe weather today. First is the rain and storms down across north Texas limiting our moisture and instability (Energy) in the area. The second is the cloud cover from the rain to our south that will limit daytime heating and energy needed for storms to develop.

So we'll continue with the highest rain and storm chances to the south across the Red river and into north Texas. Things could change especially if you see more sunshine this afternoon and your temperatures getting into the 80s. We do have plenty of wind energy aloft but if you don't see t'storms develop, you can't have severe weather.

Make sure you're weather aware today just in case storms decide to fire up. Otherwise enjoy your Friday as the weekend weather is looking very nice.