Critical fire weather danger for most of Texoma this afternoon | 3/31 AM

LAWTON, Okla. (KSWO) -

Good morning! A couple more showers and a storm or two can’t be ruled out until the cold front/dryline system sweeps through Texoma, exiting off to our east by the mid-morning hours. Behind it, substantially dry air that will see relative humidity percentages drop down the the single digits this afternoon and some very strong winds. How strong? Try out of the west at 20-30 mph, with wind gusts up to 40-50 mph! This combined with sunny skies and highs in the mid/upper 70s will lead to near-critical, critical, and extreme fire weather conditions. As a result, wind advisories and red flag warnings will go into effect for nearly all of Texoma this morning and last until the evening hours. Practice fire safety and avoid doing anything that involves outdoor burning or anything that could create sparks, as the weather set-up today will create some of the worst fire weather environments we’ve experienced in some time. Another weather phenomena possible today with the westerly winds and dry air would be some blowing dust, permeating the skies and reducing visibility across Texoma.

Winds should die down once the sun goes down, out of the west at 5-15 mph later this evening. A cold front will move through during the early morning hours tomorrow, shifting winds out of the north at 5-15 mph by daybreak. Morning lows will fall to the low/mid 40s with mostly clear skies.

Skies remain mostly sunny tomorrow with calmer winds (relative to today) that will shift back out of the south in the afternoon at 5-15 mph. Speaking of the afternoon, because of the morning cold front, temperatures will only top out in the upper 60s and low 70s.

Some cloud coverage will build back in on Sunday as a shortwave disturbance will allow for the formation of some isolated showers & storms in the afternoon. Winds will pick back out of the south at 10-20 mph, setting us up to once again experience near-critical fire weather conditions. High temps will warm back up to the mid/upper 70s to close out the weekend.

Daytime highs soar into the upper 80s and low 90s on Monday with mostly sunny skies and winds out of the south at 10-20 mph. Continuing the trend set the day before, near-critical fire weather conditions will be in place across Texoma. The fire danger will be even worse on Tuesday as we will get into the critical range thanks to breezier winds out of the southwest at 15-25 mph and highs still in the mid/upper 80s.

Our next cool-down will arrive next Wednesday and Thursday with rain chances increasing across the Southern Plains around this time next week.

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