Heat And Humidity Continue Amid High Temps

The heat dome will remain the dominate weather feature across the state for the next several days as it continues to expand eastward, eventually centering across the state Sunday into early next week.

This will bring the hottest temperatures of the summer season, with several locations nearing 100 to 104 from the east to west early next week.

The influence of low-level moisture (evapotranspiration into the boundary layer) will slowly begin to lose some influence this weekend. The result of slightly drier low-level air will bring the potential for higher daytime highs early next week combined with the influence of the mid-level ridge.

Even though the ridge remains strong, a few high-based showers will be possible today and tomorrow morning on the northern edge of the ridge and could float across the northern parts of the state with very little impact.

A few showers are possible this morning across western Arkansas into far southeastern Oklahoma. Some model data suggests the tail-end of a short-wave trough moving out of the Rockies could bring a few showers near the Oklahoma-Kansas state line region Friday night.

We’ll not make any changes to the forecast at this point due to the strength of the ridge. But it’s possible for a few of these to sneak under the northern edge of the heat dome on Friday evening.

Surface pressure gradient winds will remain breezy today and Friday before relaxing some this weekend.

Morning lows in the upper 70s and lower 80s today and Friday morning will bring afternoon highs in the metro from 100 to 101 today and tomorrow. Morning lows should drop a few degrees this weekend with hot weather for the weekend.

Heat index values projections for both Thursday and Friday should trigger additional heat advisories. We’ll be on the bubble for some advisory level numbers this weekend.

Regardless, please remain aware and stay hydrated throughout this weekend into early next week. 

Some data suggest the ridge may side slightly southeast of the state by the end of next week. This could be the signal for some organized storm chances returning to the state. But until then, any shower activity will be higher isolated and mostly across the extreme northern or far eastern areas of the state. 

Thanks for reading the Thursday morning weather discussion and blog. 

Have a super great day!