MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... September 24, 2020 September 24, 2020 September 24, 2020 September 24, 2020 A state divided http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/todays-forecast-highs.png Talk about polarizing. Mother Nature has decided that western Oklahoma should take a trip back to summer while eastern Oklahoma gets to remain in fall, at least for the next couple of days. We have that large ridge of upper-level high pressure once again building to our west and scooching (Okie-to-English translation: "sliding") to the east. That will bring summer back to the state, again at least across western Oklahoma where we might even see some triple-digit temperatures return tomorrow. The heat will spread a bit farther east but shouldn't get too bad across far eastern Oklahoma before we see another cold front drop all of us back into fall on Monday. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/friday-forecast-highs.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/saturday-forecast-highs.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/monday-forecast-highs.png Come on now, that only fair! Remember earlier this month when you western OK folks got winter and the southeast was basking in the warm glow of Hades? http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/winter-summer.png And there does look like we will see another possible big cool down next week with another plunge of cold air across the eastern US. Once we set up with that pattern where we have a large area of low pressure to the east and a large area of high pressure to the west, that will set us up under northwesterly flow aloft and allow cold fronts to occasionally plunge through the "in between" areas, like the Southern Plains. The only question will be where that demarcation line between the upper high and upper low sets up. Looks like right over us, however, which is reflected in next week's temperature outlook map from CPC. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/sept29-oct3-temp-outlook.gif What's NOT fair, and Mother Nature knows this, is the lack of rainfall we see across the west to go along with that heat. It's pretty obvious when you look at the number of days without at least a tenth of an inch at our Mesonet sites. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/mesonet.rainfall.tenthinch.png Eastern Oklahoma received some moisture from Tropical Storm Beta, whilst the west continued getting sprayed with Arid Extra Dry. Meanwhile, we are continuing with long-term dry conditions across far western Oklahoma, and even northern OK is starting to dry out a bit. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/rainrfc.96hr.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/30day-rain-totals.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/del30day_rain.current.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/pct30day_rain.current.png That leaves us with another week with virtually the same U.S. Drought Monitor map. We were very close to ramping up the levels across NE OK before that Beta moisture, but we did see an addition of severe drought in Beaver County. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/20200922_OK_none.png Little hope for relief across western Oklahoma in the next couple of weeks. We are going to need something of a pattern change before we see good relief in that area. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/7day-forecast-precip.gif http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20200924/sept29-oct3-precip-outlook.gif There's just not a lot of moisture to work with, and there won't be with the pattern that is setting up. Those fast cold fronts will come through and probably not do a lot other than make us start to worry about fire danger across western Oklahoma. So when you're picking a beverage, pour a little out for western Oklahoma in solidarity. Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org