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. . . Ticker for March 16, 2000 . . .
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... March 16, 2000 March 16, 2000 March 16, 2000 March 16, 2000 Freezing Rain Hits Western Oklahoma Freezing rain can be one of Mother Nature's costliest short-term events, in terms of interrupting services and isolating persons from each other. The winter weather system Oklahoma is experiencing today has already produced dramatic changes in temperature (for example, the Woodward Mesonet station temperature dropped 51 degrees in 24 hours http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20000316/delta.tair24.gif ), but is also dropping significant freezing rain on a large area of western Oklahoma. While the Mesonet isn't specifically equipped to measure frozen precipitation, its effects are undeniable. Take a look at the wind speeds from 3:00 pm the afternoon: http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20000316/current.gust.gif The unusually light winds in much of western and northwestern Oklahoma aren't really light winds at all. Those are frozen (or freezing) wind monitors on top of Mesonet stations. You can watch the entire ugly process unfold on today's meteograms: Arnett: http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20000316/ARNE.met.gif Cheyenne: http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20000316/CHEY.met.gif Medford: http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20000316/MEDF.met.gif Seiling: http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20000316/SEIL.met.gif Notice that, on all of these meteograms, the wind speeds started to "die down" at each site at some time today. But why would the wind speeds fall at 4:00 am at Arnett, but 7:00 am at Cheyenne, 8:00 am at Seiling and 11:00 at Medford? Because this wasn't due to calming winds. Notice that the wind speeds began to slow just as the temperature fell below 32 F at each station. This is the effect of freezing precipitation sticking on the prop-vane on top of the Mesonet stations and drastically reducing observed wind speeds. ================================================== The OCS/Mesonet Ticker https://ticker.mesonet.org/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Ticker or for questions about the Ticker or its content Phone or Email the Ticker Manager at OCS Phone: 405-325-2253 Email: ticker@mesonet.org --------------------------------------------------- -C- Copyright 2023 Oklahoma Climatological Survey ===================================================