Showers, Thunderstorms Bring Much-Needed Rainfall

Over the past week, showers and thunderstorms, some producing flooding rains, have impacted a great deal of the state.  Last Sunday, northeast Oklahoma was pounded with heavy rainfall, and on Friday, parts of western, central, and eastern Oklahoma picked up tremendous rainfall amounts.  Scattered thunderstorms throughout the week also brought more rain to parts of the state in the days in between.  For today, rain chances will diminish and be concentrated mostly in northwest Oklahoma.  On Sunday and Monday, the chance for rain becomes greater in northern Oklahoma and expands farther south across the state.  We have a forecast for the coming days as well as a look back on how much rainfall was picked up over the past week below.

Looking at the rainfall totals over the past seven days, parts of northeast Oklahoma and central Oklahoma, again around the Oklahoma City metro area as well as Lawton, received the most rain.  A slow-moving upper-level low last Sunday morning brought a tremendous amount of rain to northeast Oklahoma.  Additional thunderstorms throughout the week also added to the rainfall totals in this region.  In central Oklahoma and around the Lawton area, most rain was picked up from Friday morning's flooding rains but thunderstorms throughout the week also added to the totals.  A detailed synopsis of Friday's flash flooding event provided by the National Weather Service in Norman, OK can be found here.

Due to Sunday's rainfall in northeast Oklahoma, parts of that region have been reduced from a moderate drought to an "abnormally dry" situation.  The latest drought monitor for Oklahoma can be viewed here.  Again, the cut-off time for the drought monitor is 7 AM CDT Tuesday, so the monitor will not factor in the flooding rains from Friday.  The graphic to the right also shows the current rainfall data for Guymon, Tulsa, and Oklahoma City as of July 26, 2013.  Oklahoma City is now sitting at over 40 inches of rain for the year!  Unfortunately, Guymon and Tulsa and still lagging in year-to-date totals, but some improvement has been made for Tulsa.

So looking to the coming days, what can we expect?  For this afternoon, rain chances will be between 15% and 30% in northwest Oklahoma as isolated thunderstorms have the possibility of developing in the late-afternoon and evening hours.  Some storms may be strong, with small hail and damaging winds possible.  The rest of the state will see scattered clouds, with temperatures mainly in the mid-to-upper-80s, with low-90s possible across southwest Oklahoma.

For Sunday, rain chances will be greatest across far northern Oklahoma, with lesser rain chances across the rest of northern Oklahoma.  Skies will be partly to mostly cloudy for the duration of the day, with morning temperatures in the 60s and afternoon temperatures reaching the 90s across central and western Oklahoma but only the 80s across eastern Oklahoma.  For Sunday night, rain chances become much more prominent.  Northern Oklahoma will see chances as high as 70% to 80%.  Central Oklahoma will see rain chances up to 55%.  Even southern Oklahoma has the chance of seeing rain, but chances are no greater than 30% at this time.  Sunday night's rains have the potential to, again, produce more flash flooding, so please take caution.

For Monday, the flooding rains have the potential to continue into the morning, which could cause a messy morning commute.  Please plan ahead.  The rain chances will be greatest in northeast Oklahoma at 70% but still linger across a lot of the rest of the state at no more than 40%.  Southwest Oklahoma will be the exception, with drier conditions and much hotter high temperatures reaching the upper-90s.  All rain should clear out of the state by Thursday at the latest, with highs soaring across southwest Oklahoma to the upper-90s and low-100s and highs across the rest of the state remaining in the low-90s.




Sources: NWS, HOOT, U.S. Drought Monitor, loudmeyell.com (photo)