textproduct: Norman

KEY MESSAGES

Updated at 1233 AM CST Thu Jan 29 2026

- Freezing fog possible Thursday morning across southeast Oklahoma.

- Below-zero wind chills likely Friday night into Saturday morning across much of Oklahoma.

NEAR TERM

(Through Thursday) Issued at 1233 AM CST Thu Jan 29 2026

Southerly winds continue tonight with temperatures drifting down into the mid-20s. Trends are looking less favorable for freezing fog tonight. RH is only reaching 80 percent in a few spots in southeast, north central, and southwest Oklahoma around midnight. Still think that patchy freezing fog is possible in a few spots around daybreak, with associated slick spots on roads, sidewalks, and bridges.

A surface low will develop just before sunrise in northwest Oklahoma and move east-southeastward through the state during the day. Behind the front, a push of northerly winds and low cloud cover is expected. This will keep high temperatures cooler primarily in a zone just west of I-35, though all of us will remain below-average. No precipitation will accompany the frontal passage.

Meister

SHORT TERM

(Thursday night through Saturday night) Issued at 1233 AM CST Thu Jan 29 2026

Friday will be chilly but at least partly sunny as a trough kicks southward toward the Ozarks. Behind that trough, another Arctic high is loading up across the prairie provinces, and that will start oozing due southward shortly after sunset Friday evening. We will likely see a modest secondary cold frontal passage during the early overnight hours. Behind this front, there is a low (20%) potential for light snow across primarily northwest Oklahoma. Extensive precipitation cover is unlikely due to overwhelming cold advection.

By Saturday, the surface high will extend from western north Texas up to Minnesota. If there is any residual snowpack, surface temperatures could get below zero. Even if that doesn't happen, a light north breeze will be enough to bring wind chills back into the 0 to 10 below range, so we are likely tracking toward another morning with cold weather headlines. The rest of the day on Saturday will pass quietly with partly to mostly sunny skies and cold high temperatures.

Meister

LONG TERM

(Sunday through Wednesday) Issued at 1233 AM CST Thu Jan 29 2026

That powerhouse trough will exit the East Coast on Sunday with height rises across much of the central US. Because of that, Sunday through Tuesday looks much more primed to be a real warmup than the stunted warming trend we've seen this week. Temperatures could return to near or above normal as soon as Monday.

One of the major long-term forecast questions will be the potential for precipitation from early-to-mid next week. Global models show an increasing influence from the STJ at some point during that period, which seems to have been a big driver of a lot of our precipitation events in the last 2 or 3 years. The signal is far from certain and is being damped out by some timing uncertainty, but we'll continue to watch the pattern. If anything, this does look like it would be a warmer system than the one we just encountered, increasing the potential for rain in lieu of snow. No significant cooldowns are obvious in the extended range.

Meister

AVIATION

(06Z TAFS) Issued at 1040 PM CST Wed Jan 28 2026

An approaching surface low will bring low level wind shear early tomorrow morning to all sites except across far northern Oklahoma (PNC/WWR). A cold front will push through all sites by the afternoon hours with breezy north winds and increasing low clouds with some MVFR ceilings behind the boundary, especially across portions of northern into central and southeast Oklahoma.

PRELIMINARY POINT TEMPS/POPS

Oklahoma City OK 36 18 35 7 / 0 0 0 10 Hobart OK 39 16 44 8 / 0 0 0 10 Wichita Falls TX 44 20 44 13 / 0 0 0 0 Gage OK 40 17 45 7 / 0 0 0 20 Ponca City OK 34 13 31 0 / 10 0 0 10 Durant OK 48 23 42 11 / 0 0 0 0

OUN WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES

OK...None. TX...None.