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April 28, 2023 April 28, 2023 April 28, 2023 April 28, 2023
DING DING!
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230428/current-radar.png
Before I get started with the weather, did you know that the Oklahoma Mesonet won
a major award?
(BEGIN GRATUITOUS BRAGGING)
No, it isn't marked "Fragile" from Italy, this was from the "Oklahoma Council for
Online Learning Excellence (COLE)" and the "Online Consortium of Oklahoma." The
award praises the Mesonet’s “great talent and expertise within distance learning
throughout the State of Oklahoma.”
The Ticker is part of that award, despite the "great talent and expertise" part,
but we'll take it. It really goes to our OK-First, K-20, and OK-FIRE folks for
their part in training folks from 495 agencies across Oklahoma during the past
two years. It also includes our "Mesonet Weather" segments in the popular "SUNUP"
program from our partners at OSU aired on OETA each Saturday and Sunday morning.
You can read more about the award and the Mesonet's online activities after the
break.
(END GRATUITOUS BRAGGING, BEGIN NON-TALENT AND EXPERTISE)
Okay, so we're on round 4 of this week's drought relief. Strictly speaking (the
non-strictly speaking begins next week), this is a separate round because it
comes with a separate storm system than rounds 1-3, but we wanted to use that
Adonis Creed meme! The rains are not as plentiful as the previous bouts (see
what I did there?), but they're beneficial and reinforcing nonetheless.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230428/today.rainrfc.png
And they add on to the already generous totals over much of the state.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230428/5day-rain-totals.png
Before you ask, no, I don't get mistaken for Brad Pitt very often, and
furthermore, that's a weird thing to ask. As for your second question, no, the
drought is not over, and here's why.
https://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20230428/pct-normal-rainfall.png
You can see there that the pct normal rainfall totals are getting somewhat
closer to 100% on the 30-day map, but as you go out in time, the percentages
drop off. That signifies that the short-term drought impacts will be curtailed
a bit, like topsoil moisture and fire danger, but the long-term impacts will
continue for now, like pond and lake levels, as well as lower soils being dry.
Even on that 30-day map, though, the SW and NE corners of the state remain
pitifully dry, so more rain will be needed in those areas.
Okay, back to our gratuitous bragging!
I'd like to single out my colleagues as the primary reason for the Mesonet's
online successes:
OK-First: James Hocker
OK-FIRE: Dr. J.D. Carlson (OSU) and Monica Mattox
K-20: Andrea Melvin
Mesonet Weather Report on "SUNUP": Wes Lee (OSU)
And a host of others that contribute to these efforts. Congrats to all!
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Oklahoma Mesonet wins Online Learning Excellence Award
April 21, 2023
At this year’s 2023 Oklahoma Learning Innovations Summit, it was announced that
the Oklahoma Mesonet was named the winner of the 2023 Team Leadership Oklahoma
Online Excellence Award by the Oklahoma Council for Online Learning Excellence
(COLE). The award praises the Mesonet’s “great talent and expertise within
distance learning throughout the State of Oklahoma.” Each nominee goes through a
review process by COLE and the Online Consortium of Oklahoma. Those selected as
winners receive, among other prizes, an award plaque from COLE, a digital
credential, and a letter of recognition from State Regents for Higher Education
Chancellor Allison D. Garrett.
The Oklahoma Mesonet has a long history of providing educational outreach,
focused on teaching Oklahomans how to effectively use weather data in their
individual sectors and communities. These efforts date back to 1992 and target
the K-20, Public Safety, Agricultural, and Fire Management stakeholder
communities. While most of those efforts were in-person activities, the Mesonet
suddenly found itself cut off from those stakeholder communities due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The Mesonet Outreach Team used their creativity and expertise
to continue serving and educating this diverse community of users through a
variety of initiatives. Mesonet staff trained 495 agencies across Oklahoma
during the COVID-19 limitations of 2020-2022. These groups spanned the gamut
from tribal organizations to public schools to city and county entities to state
and federal agencies.
IN 2020, the Mesonet’s Public Safety outreach program, OK-First
(https://www.mesonet.org/index.php/okfirst/ ), created more than 60 ADA-compliant
training modules to provide online classes to public safety officials due to
the pandemic. OK-First achieved its largest training total in its 25-year
history in 2021 when it offered eight of its 10 classes online due to continuing
COVID-19 concerns, certifying a total of 554 public safety officials. Similarly,
the Mesonet’s Fire Management outreach program, OK-FIRE
(https://www.mesonet.org/index.php/okfire/home ), switched its in-person
workshops—typically held at various regional sites across Oklahoma—to virtual
training in 2021 and 2022 with enormous success.
The Mesonet’s K-20 (https://www.mesonet.org/index.php/earthstorm ) outreach
program has been active in Oklahoma’s Science Olympiad since 2013. The K-20
outreach program manager helped the Science Olympiad move online during the
COVID-19 pandemic, serving as an Event Supervisor. For the first time in its
history, the Oklahoma Science Olympiad opened their Invitational to participants
from other states. As a result, the online event allowed teams not only from
Oklahoma, but also from California, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, New York,
Texas, and Washington.
Two of the Mesonet’s longer-lived online educational efforts include the Mesonet
Weather Report (https://www.youtube.com/@SUNUPTV ) and the Mesonet
Ticker. The Mesonet Weather Report is geared to Oklahoma’s agricultural
community, and is aired each Saturday and Sunday morning on Oklahoma State
University’s popular “Sunup” program on OETA. The segment is then made available
to the online community through YouTube. The Mesonet Ticker is a unique and
creative online educational tool focused on communicating weather and climate
information to Oklahoma's citizens and decision-makers in an engaging narrative.
The Ticker is sent in e-mail format and then made available online through the
Mesonet's social media accounts and apps. It is common for these posts to reach
more than 100,000 views and be shared by hundreds of individuals, media, and
organizations.
The Oklahoma Mesonet—Oklahoma’s Weather Network—is a system of weather
monitoring stations located across the state’s 77 counties, designed to serve
Oklahomans by providing real-time and archived weather and climate information.
The Oklahoma Mesonet is a partnership between Oklahoma State University and the
University of Oklahoma and is operated by the Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(OCS). This partnership was established in December 1990 and statewide data
have been continuously collected since 1994.
###
Gary McManus
State Climatologist
Oklahoma Mesonet
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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