FRIGID Temperatures This Morning

As another cold front swept through the state on Friday, bringing rather gloomy conditions to end the week, the clouds cleared overnight, with winds becoming calm.  As a result, many areas of the state recorded freezing to sub-freezing temperatures this morning.  One of these areas included Oklahoma City, in which the temperature briefly dropped to the freezing mark early in the day.

As you can see from the graphic, Oklahoma City's average date of its first freeze is in early November.  Last year's first freeze, which was also the record date of Oklahoma City's first freeze, was in early October.  However, normal lows with temperatures at or below freezing do not begin until early December, so low temperatures this cold are certainly not the norm for mid-October.

The coldest lows this morning occurred in the far western portion of the panhandle, dropping down into the mid-20s!  In central and western Oklahoma, lows ranged anywhere between the upper-20s to the mid-30s.  As the front was still passing through the state in eastern Oklahoma, lows remained in the upper-30s to low-40s.  Still, many of these lows across the state are the coldest reported since last spring.

In addition to the cold temperatures, more rain was also picked up as a result of yesterday's front.  Though in many cases only a light to moderate rain, any more rainfall is certainly good news.  In fact, the slight additional rainfall has now put Oklahoma City at a new milestone of over 50 inches for the year.  This year's total currently puts Oklahoma City at the third wettest year on record.  Just a little more over 2 inches will put Oklahoma City in second place.  Even though receiving an average amount of rain for the rest of the year will still put the city shy of the current first place record, it is still possible for additional rain above the average to break the record in the coming months, something certainly seen in the months of May and July.

So...what still felt like summer temperatures to begin the month of October have quickly turned into winter temperatures in the middle of the month.  We are talking about temperatures near freezing now when we were talking about temperatures in the 80s and 90s at the beginning of the month.  What lies ahead?  Well, today, temperatures will rebound somewhat but will still remain below normal in the 60s.  For Sunday, expect very pleasant conditions, with mostly sunny skies and temperatures in the 70s.  For Monday, well, the "Monday blues" may come on because we're talking about another cold front that will bring more chances for showers and cooler temperatures.  Enjoy your weekend!

AC

**A previous version of this post had the incorrect year shown for Oklahoma City's wettest year.  The error has been corrected and the post revised.

Sources: NWS, hdstein.com (photo)