2 Winter Storms, Arctic Air Headed For Oklahoma

Winter is coming! Make sure you, your house, pets, and vehicles are ready for the coldest air of the season.

Wednesday, January 16th 2019, 9:15 am

By: News 9

Winter is coming! Make sure you, your house, pets, and vehicles are ready for the coldest air of the season. The Arctic air mass has now made it into the far north parts of the US and is headed south.

The storm that will move toward Oklahoma is still off the West Coast in the Pacific. These two elements will converge on the state late Friday into Saturday bringing gusty winds, storms, bitter cold and snow, pretty much in that order.

Friday will be a day with wet and stormy weather building by late day. The winds will increase from the south and be gusty. Storm chances look possible to the east.

A thing to look for: If we have severe weather in the state, that will tell you how potent this storm is and will in turn be bad with winter weather for some on Saturday.

I've posted my snow prediction for Saturday with a disclaimer in the lower left. This is not locked in, but if you blur your eyes you will get an idea where my confidence at this point is.

The bigger models have the track of the storm further south and east at the latest run. I am not really confident that they have a handle on the track yet with the storm being so far out in the Pacific. When the storm moves inland weather balloons will survey the storm and give us better details.

The air coming our way will be the coldest shot of Arctic air we have seen this season. The Arctic aim mass is HUGE encompassing much of Canada to the arctic circle. It is centered over the Hudson Bay. This will impact our weather over the next couple weeks as the air mass comes our way in chunks.

Any snowfall that can fall to our north will keep the air from modifying quickly. Another thing about the air is it really is centered too far east to allow an "Arctic air outbreak". Our coldest events come from Siberia and slide down the lee side of the Rockies. Saying that, I think we will have shorter durations of really cold air. Several of these are showing into next weekend.

As you can see from the wind chill graphic, it will be blustery and get really cold with wind chills in the single digits and teens by late day. Don't forget about your outdoor pets! Make preparations for them as well. Coldest temps will be Sunday morning with lows in the single digits and teens.

Make sure your car battery is in good working order, your windshield wiper fluid is topped off, and now is a good time to replace those windshield wipers too, if you think they need it.

Storm No. 2 arrives early next week. More precipitation and cold air showing!

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