MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... July 8, 2011 July 8, 2011 July 8, 2011 July 8, 2011
Hot day in the big city
Yesterday's high temperature of 108 degrees obviously broke a record, although it was closer than I thought it would be. The previous record for July 7 in Oklahoma City was 106 degrees set back in 1996. The mark is also tied for the ninth highest temperature recorded in Oklahoma City since 1896. Here are the top highs through 108 degrees.
1936/08/11 113 1936/07/18 108 1936/08/10 112 1966/07/19 108 1936/08/12 110 1980/07/29 108 1980/08/02 110 1980/08/01 108 1996/07/06 110 1986/07/28 108 1936/07/19 109 1986/07/30 108 1936/08/09 109 1996/07/05 108 1986/07/29 109 2000/09/02 108 1909/08/17 108 2000/09/03 108 1936/07/15 108 2011/07/07 108
So the highest temperature in OKC in the last 11 years is nothing to sneeze at. Feel free to sweat, however. Tulsa also broke its record high yesterday with 104 degrees. The previous record was 103 degrees, set back in 1917.
How about statewide? We averaged the Mesonet temperatures statewide (highs + lows, divide by 2 so as to match up with the COOP methodology) and found an average temperature of 89.8 degrees. That marks July 7th as the warmest day across the state so far this year. Here are the top-5.
2011/07/07 89.8 2011/06/26 89.6 2011/06/27 88.8 2011/06/25 88.0 2011/06/30 87.9
Wow, very impressive! How does that stack up to Oklahoma's historical record? We did the same thing for Oklahoma's COOP records dating to 1915 and found yesterday's warmth stacks up with some of the hottest days on record. The 89.8- degree statewide average temperature yesterday is tied for the 129th warmest day in the state. That might not seem that high, but we're talking more than 31,000 days back. (note: we started in 1915 since we're looking at a statewide average and we wanted at least 70 stations to work with)
At the top of the list is August 12, 1936, at 94.9 degrees. The previous day -- August 11, 1936 -- comes in a close second at 94.2 degrees. Here's the top-10. Notice all the 1934s, 1936s, and 1954s (i.e., drought years).
1936/08/12 94.9 1936/08/11 94.2 1936/07/19 94.0 1936/08/10 94.0 1936/08/09 93.9 1936/08/13 93.8 1954/07/14 93.8 1934/08/01 93.7 1934/08/12 93.6 1936/07/18 93.4
Here's what August 12, 1936, looks like on a weather map. Doesn't look like too much fun, but neither does this July 7, 2011, either. For the August 12 map, highs are in black and lows are in red.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110708/August12-1936_temps.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110708/July7-2011_temps.gif
Want to cool off? Think back to February 2 of this year when the average statewide temperature was 9.7 degrees. What the heck, why stop there? Go back to the coolest day on record ... December 22, 1989. The statewide average temperature was 1.8 degrees.
Brr.
Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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