Bitter Cold Weather Straight Ahead

Patchy fog has developed across much of the area, with locally dense fog from Fort Smith through portions of east central Oklahoma. Visibility will fall below 1/2 mile in this zone through mid morning. A strong arctic cold front will move through the area late tonight. Ahead of the front, increasing moisture and large scale forcing will result in a few elevated thunderstorms across portions of eastern Oklahoma and western Arkansas. The deep layer shear will be quite strong, generally in the 50 to 60 knot range. Elevated instability in the presence of a strongly sheared environment may result in large hail with the strongest storms. The most likely timing for strong storms will be this evening before midnight. The strong cold front will move into northeast Oklahoma just before midnight, with very strong wind gusts and a dramatic drop in temperature. Much of the precipitation will likely occur ahead of the front in the warmer air, and will fall as rain. There will be a period of several hours of sub-freezing temperatures after midnight tonight, where a mix of wintry precipitation will occur across northeast Oklahoma and northwest Arkansas. The speed of the system will limit the amount of accumulation. Still, snow amounts may approach a half inch in some spots. There will be light ice accumulations as well, where freezing rain occurs. A wind advisory is in effect for northeast Oklahoma tonight for expected wind gusts of at least 40 miles per hour. The strong winds and frigid temperatures will result in dangerous wind chill values in the single digits through early Sunday morning. Precipitation will change to all snow by Saturday morning, with low accumulations possible through mid day. The snow will move east of the area by Saturday night. The cold temperatures will persist through Sunday. The airmass will moderate quickly with highs in the 50s by Monday.