April Showers Expected This Weekend

US Drought Monitor for April 1, 2014

DROUGHT UPDATE

This Thursday the latest United States Drought Monitor was released and did not have good news for Oklahoma. Extreme and exceptional drought continues for southwest Oklahoma and portions of the Panhandle.  Meanwhile, portions of north-central and western Oklahoma are now experiencing severe drought. Much of Oklahoma will see chances for rain showers during the course of the weekend. However, rainfall totals through the weekend will remain less than a quarter of an inch. The extended outlook into late next week keeps most of Oklahoma dry. Therefore, no improvement for areas currently experiencing drought is expected in the short term.



SATURDAY

Saturday will start off cool with temperatures in the mid to upper 30s for areas north of Interstate 40. Areas to the south will have morning lows in the low 40s. Skies will start off partly cloudy and cloud cover will increase throughout the day from southwest to northeast.  This will keep temperatures below average.  The Panhandle and southwest Oklahoma will experience daytime highs in the upper 50s. Temperatures in eastern Oklahoma will rise into the mid 60s with more sunshine during the course of the day.

There will be a 30% of rain for the Panhandle and far western Oklahoma during the day on Saturday. Rainfall amounts will generally be less than 0.10".

SUNDAY

The best chances for rainfall will be during the day on Sunday.  A 40% chance of rainfall exists for the Panhandle and north-central Oklahoma. Tulsa, Oklahoma City, and Lawton will have a 50% chance for rainfall during the day while southeast Oklahoma will have a 60% chance.

The heaviest rainfall amounts will be in southeast Oklahoma where 0.25" to 0.50" is forecast. The rest of the state is forecast to receive between 0.10" and 0.25". The prolonged period of clouds and rain showers will keep temperatures cool during the day with highs only in the upper 50s.

Total rainfall Saturday through Monday

NEXT WEEK

An area of high pressure will build over Oklahoma which will allow daytime temperatures to rise each day of the week from the 60s on Monday to the 80s by Wednesday and Thursday. Dewpoints will remain low early next week, allowing the warm up to remain pleasant. Winds will also increase throughout the week as well. With dry conditions already present across much of Oklahoma, the increasing temperatures and winds will result in increasing fire weather conditions throughout the course of the week.

Be sure to check out our website owl.ou.edu for the latest video forecasts and blog posts. From all of us at the Oklahoma Weather Lab, thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!

-TH

Sources: NWS, US Drought Monitor, WPC