Merry Christmas.

Wishing for one and all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!  And for those of you wondering about a White Christmas, here is the current snow cover map across the U.S.  Obviously, that will not happen in the Sooner state this year.

[img]

Also, here is a map showing potential travel or weather related issues as of early this evening.  Notice the widespread wintry weather issues across the Rockies and Northern Plains and fog a potential problem out across the Plains, including much of OK.

[img]

Back to our local weather; the fog this morning finally burned off this afternoon, at least for some of us.  Notice the visible satellite image from late this afternoon which shows some folks never got to see much sunshine today. 

[img]

Then, notice the impact those clouds had on our high temperatures for today, particularly for those in N Central OK.  The more SE counties had a much warmer start which helped them overcome the cloudy skies.

[img]

At any rate, the low stratus cloud deck will be returning for all of us tonight along with at least some patchy fog.  There will also be some drizzle and scattered showers for the overnight hours along with temperatures that will hold pretty steady early tonight, but rising toward morning with most locations in the 50s to near 60 to start Christmas Day.  That will be at record setting levels as the previous record for warmest morning low on Christmas now stands at 51.

SE winds during the night will be increasing to 15-25 mph by morning and a S/SE wind during Christmas Day will be blowing at 20-35 with gusts possibly exceeding 40 mph; in other words, a very warm and windy Christmas Day.  Those strong southerly winds will keep temperatures very warm, but the overcast skies should keep temperatures below record levels for daytime highs although we do expect to be near 70.

Look for some drizzle and scattered showers from time to time through the morning and into the afternoon with the best chance for showers and storms during the afternoon and evening hours.  Given the strength of the winds at the surface and aloft, cannot rule out a few storms reaching severe limits with primarily a damaging wind threat.  Rainfall totals may reach an inch for some lucky folks, but most will receive much less than that as you can see on the QPF map.  Keep in mind, this represents an areal average so some locations could receive twice what is projected here.

[img]

That will be followed by clearing skies from W-E Sunday night and lots of sunshine for Monday.  Our winds will also be much lighter and more from a SW component to start the day Monday, eventually shifting to a more northerly direction that evening and night.  As a result, Monday will be very mild for this time of year with morning lows in the 40s and daytime highs in the 60s. 

As you can see on our forecast page, the rest of the week leading up to the New Year will be relatively quiet with another weak front arriving later Wednesday.  Above normal temperatures through Wednesday will cool off somewhat for Thu/Fri, but still at or above normal levels.  Also, the front on Wednesday will not have much moisture to work with so only a very slight chance of a few showers primarily over the far E/SE counties.

By New Year’s weekend, moisture will be returning once again with at least a chance of scattered showers.  At least, we still do not see a return of any arctic air coming this way anytime soon.

Of course, at this time of year, conditions can change rather rapidly so in the meantime, stay tuned and check back for updates.

Dick Faurot