Mesonet Ticker for July 7, 2026

                
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July 7, 2026       July 7, 2026       July 7, 2026       July 7, 2026


Red rover




Red Rover, Red Rover, send severe wind gusts right over!

Hey, kids today don't know how our games back then used to choose violence.

Dodgeball? You knew you were getting that vinyl ball rocketed into your face.
Red Rover? Oh yeah, you were definitely getting clotheslined at least once.
And the worst of all? War...ike basketball mixed with the movie "The Warriors."

I don't know what they called it in your school, but to call a kids basketball
game "War" is pure GenX foolishness. What, no pestilence?

But here's the deal...Mother Nature has chosen violence since June 1. We looked
at all the severe wind gusts (NWS definition, at least 58 mph) since Jan. 1, 2026,
and we found 357 total, with 234 of those coming before June 1. Those counts were
contaminated with all those synoptic-scale wind gusts on high fire danger days,
so we upped it to 60 mph to try and filter those out. Easier than just looking
for days without thunderstorms but with severe winds and filtering.

So when going to a 60 mph threshold, then we see 33 gusts for Jan-May, and 93
since June 1. So nearly triple the number of 60 mph gusts since June 1 vs. the
first five months of the year. Maybe a few of those high fire danger day gusts
still sneaking in, so how about 70 mph?

That's where the stark contrast comes in, with only 3 of those gusts between
January and May, and 34 since June 1. WOW! What's a bit crazy is one of those
severe gusts (88 mph) in the first five months of the year happened in January,
for crying out loud. The other two were in May. February, March, and April
bested by January? Shame!

A bit different for tornadoes though, with 63 twisters between Jan. 1 and May
31, but only a handful since (only 3 confirmed, but still waiting on some from
Beaver County to be published).

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled summer. Enjoy your sunburns and sweat.
And watch out for those seat belts!

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

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