MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... July 19, 2011 July 19, 2011 July 19, 2011 July 19, 2011
Heat and drought: An update to an update of a previous update I updated
How hot has it been? OCS resident map-making guru Nathan Bain has worked his magic (I always thought he was a Muggle) and whipped up some really cool maps using Mesonet data. Here are the days with maximum temperatures of at least 90- and 100-degrees and also the consecutive days of the same data (through July 18). These maps should be operational on the Mesonet site later today as well so you can follow along at home.
Days http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110719/daily.tmax_ge90.current.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110719/daily.tmax_ge100.current.png
Consecutive Days http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110719/tmax_ge90_streak.current.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110719/tmax_ge100_streak.current.png
Compare the number of days above 100 map with the one from 1980 and you can see that things are going to get very interesting over the next month or two if the drought/heat continues. Grandfield at 55 has Healdton's total of 83 days in its sight with half of summer remaining.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20100726/100days.png
We've blown past the normal number of days above 100 for the western half of the state and are approaching normal in the east. For days above 90, we're not there yet but again, still much of summer left to go.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110719/avg_days_above90.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110719/avg_days_above100.png
For July 1-18, the statewide average temperature was 88.4 degrees. That is 0.3 degrees warmer than the warmest July on record (1954, 88.1 degrees). If things hold through the month, we very well could be looking at the warmest July on record in Oklahoma.
Why stop there? How is the summer shaping up? From June 1-July 18 (climatological summer starts June 1 and ends August 31), the statewide average temperature was 85.4 degrees. The warmest summer on record was 1934 with a statewide average of 85.2 degrees. As with July, we are ahead of the pace to finish with the warmest summer on record. Unlike July, however, there is more time for those numbers to start coming down. An extra 31 days, to be exact.
By the way, the average high temperature across the state so far in July is 102.6 degrees. Feel better? No, me neither.
Expelliarmus Droughtious!!
Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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