MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... September 24, 2012 September 24, 2012 September 24, 2012 September 24, 2012
Hurricane Miriam to the rescue?
After the Hurricane Isaac letdown, I hesitate to jinx the next chance for tropical relief, but hope rolls on! There is more and more talk about the state benefiting from the remnants of Hurricane Miriam, currently churning away off the west coast of Mexico. The model output has it moving over the Desert Southwest at some point late this week.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120924/hurricane-miriam.png
As luck would have it, there will also be a frontal boundary hanging around our area as well. Now state weather historians will immediately perk up their ears hearing those two factors could be in play as October approaches. Some of our most extreme rainfall events on record have occurred when pacific hurricane remnants and stalled frontal boundaries mingled over the state. Here are our greatest 1-day through 7-day rainfall totals on record in the state. Enid's massive one-day total remains the state's greatest 1-day rainfall total in history, but the 2-day through 7-day totals all belong to pacific hurricane Norma and the front she hung out with back in October 1981 (more on Norma at the end of the Ticker).
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120924/norma-rainfall-1981.png
-****- Duration Ppt Total Ending Date Location 1-day 15.68" Oct 11, 1973 Enid 2-day 18.02" Oct 14, 1981 Tishomingo 3-day 18.68" Oct 14, 1981 Kingston 4-day 22.47" Oct 16, 1981 Tishomingo 5-day 23.12" Oct 17, 1981 Tishomingo 6-day 23.95" Oct 18, 1981 Coalgate 7-day 24.95" Oct 18, 1981 Coalgate -***-
It would be ridiculous to predict another Norma-type rainfall event, but we can at least get excited about the possibility of a good soaking rain for parts of the state, right? The HPC is already starting to paint the state with some decent rainfall amounts in the latest HPC 5-day rainfall outlook, especially in northern Oklahoma. This map is for rain accumulated from now until Saturday morning (and it's already a tad old, being released this morning).
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120924/5day-rain.gif
As I was mentioning earlier, Oklahoma has had some ginormous rains from pacific tropical systems interacting with stalled fronts. Probably more so than Atlantic hurricanes, believe it or not. Here's a brief synopsis on previous encounters between pacific hurricane remnants and Oklahoma, compiled by former Associate State Climatologist and the original entire Ticker staff, Deke Arndt. We'll start with the Grandmomma of them all (at least in modern Oklahoma history), Hurricane Norma. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pacific Hurricane Norma, October 1981. Norma formed off the Mexican coast on the 9th, and quickly became a Category 3 hurricane before weakening slightly and making landfall near Mazatlan. Her remnants made their way into the southern plains by the 11th and encountered a stationary front draped across north Texas. Norma?s rains in south-central, southeast and eastern Oklahoma were both torrential and long-lasting. A swath stretching from around the Lake Texoma region to Eufaula saw more than a foot of rain, with local values exceeding 15 inches. The greatest two-day, three-day, four-day, five-day, six-day and seven-day rainfall totals ever recorded in Oklahoma are all related to Norma. Two drowned in the state, with at least $50 million in property damage. The system also spawned two F1 tornadoes in southern Oklahoma, causing two injuries.
Pacific Hurricane Tico, October 1983. Most of Oklahoma was already waterlogged by a very wet autumn when Tico?s remnants met a stalled front in Oklahoma in mid-month. More than a foot of rainfall drenched the I-44 corridor. Widespread flooding occurred throughout the state, notably on the irritable Cottonwood Creek in Guthrie, where a man was swept to his death. A train was derailed in Altus when the tracks were washed away underneath it. In subsequent days, several locations on the Red and Washita Rivers recorded all-time high streamflows.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120924/tico-rainfall-1983.png
Pacific Hurricane Waldo, October 1985. Far western Oklahoma is not immune to large rainfall totals from Pacific storms. Waldo left a wide swath of rain across the northwestern half of Oklahoma, and the Buffalo area saw more than five inches.
Pacific Hurricane Paine, October 1986. Accumulations in excess of fifteen inches were commonplace in the opening days of October 1986. The Oklahoma epicenter of Paine?s downpour lay in the north-central parts of the state, where upwards of ten inches fell in the Perry area and in Kay County. The Cimarron River saw its flood of record at several gages in central Oklahoma, and Tulsa flood damages approached $35 million. Agricultural damages, particularly in the winter wheat belt, were tremendous.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20120924/paine-rainfall-1986.png
Pacific Hurricane Raymond, October 1989. Interestingly, Raymond was a cousin of catastrophic Hurricane Hugo that battered the Carolinas in 1989. He was spawned in the Pacific by the same traveling tropical wave that ignited Hugo three weeks earlier in the Atlantic. Raymond?s rainfall footprint resembled that left by Paine in 1989, but peak accumulations were less than four inches.
Pacific Hurricane Lester, August 1992. A major swath of Oklahoma?s wheat belt was the beneficiary of one-to-three-inch rains related to Lester in late August. Lester also caused major flooding in the American southwest, as well as minor flooding days later in the Midwest. Very little of Lester?s impact made the news, because at the same time, Atlantic Hurricane Andrew was becoming the costliest natural disaster of the 20th Century.
Pacific Hurricane Ismael, September 1995. After dumping more than half a foot of rain in eastern New Mexico and west Texas, Ismael left few scars on Oklahoma. However, it did provide nearly three inches of rainfall to much of the Arbuckles region.
Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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