Mesonet Ticker for March 23, 2026

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
March 23, 2026     March 23, 2026     March 23, 2026     March 23, 2026


Little patter




Hey, for those that were wondering where I went for the last 10-11 days, well I
had a bit of a mishap and I've been recovering ever since. Ya see, I ate 12
bean burritos at Taco Bell the Friday before spring break, then I chased it down
with an Arby-Q, and the rest is dysentery...I mean history.

Well, maybe not. In actuality, I was off on spring break doing nothing but
freezing, then sweating. It's not like anything happened, right? Like a record-
breaking heat wave?









Now how the heck did we end up with a map like this? In March???



Well it ain't easy, especially considering we started out the week with wind
chills in the single-digits to teens (with a few below-zeroes thrown in as well).
The only thing that kept this being a (don't you dare use "an" there!) HISTORIC
historic March heat wave was an even bigger one back in 1907 around these same
dates.











Now there aren't as many stations back then, and these maps don't have a color
gradient to make them look angry like the Mesonet maps, but the March 1907 heat
wave wins the day for earliest 100 in state history (Weatherford, 100, March
18, 1907), and highest ever March temperature, and featured several 102s and
103s here and there. The highest March temperature in state history was the 104
at Frederick (covered up a bit by a 103 close by) from March 27, 1971.



Anyway, the March 2026 heat wave is history EXCEPPPTTTTTTTT when it comes back
later this week!





Will we have another spring freeze, of did those end today up in the Panhandle?



Climatology says beware of April!





And I know your Grandpappy told you to never plant your garden until after Easter,
but those spring freezes have been known to end a bit early.



My advice? Don't listen to me, listen to your Grandpappy. Besides, if you plant now,
you're just gonna have to water. A lot!



We need rain, especially given the heat we've had, and lots of it. There's promise
some 10+ days out, of course, but that's always the case during a drought, ain't it?
That's how droughts work. It doesn't rain, even if you fantasy-cast it to happen. And
even when it does, it doesn't rain where it's needed the most.



And there are lots of places where it's needed the most.

Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climate Survey
gmcmanus@ou.edu
                

---