MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... January 29, 2019 January 29, 2019 January 29, 2019 January 29, 2019
HODOR!
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/HODOR.png
Thank goodness for glancing blows! From the "it could be worse" department, the Upper Midwest (and in reality the eastern U.S.) continues to get hammered by that arctic air mass (AKA the "polar vortex") that has been displaced southward. That's why we keep getting these backdoor cold fronts, which come in from the northeast and drop us down into uncomfortable territory for a day or two, then the frigid air pulls off to the east and we warm up again. Now this morning is no picnic for us Okies...
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/current.TAPP.grad.png
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/today.TAPP.min.grad.png
But like I said, it could be worse! We definitely don't want to see the -40 to -50 degree wind chills they're experiencing in the Northern Plains and the Great Lakes region. And if the current wind chills from the -20 to -40s aren't bad enough, that's still not the bottom. That comes tomorrow morning when they could see wind chills down in the -50s and -60s.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/wed-morning-forecast.png
For us in Oklahoma, we get a piece of that cold air tomorrow as we see highs in the 20s for tomorrow in the northeast, but moderating as you go west.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/wed-forecast-temps.png
Then we see a lovely warm up through the weekend, with highs in the 60s by Saturday (maybe a 70 or two on Sunday???)!
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/wed-forecast-temps.png
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/nws-norman-temps.png
Our next chance for excitement (unless you consider lots of NW flow with periodic dry cold fronts exciting...then God help you) comes early next week with the possibility of a bit stronger system setting up.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/814temp.new.gif
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20190129/814prcp.new.gif
And before we're done Ticking, let's remember that it CAN get that cold in Oklahoma. I don't know if we've ever seen -60 degree wind chills here in the state, but in just the last 25 years of Mesonet data, we've seen similar readings. Feb. 10, 2011, will long be remembered as the coldest day many of us have seen in the state with minimum actual air temperatures in the -20s to as low as -31 degrees at Nowata, and wind chills down into the -40s.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110210/today.TAIR.min.grad.png
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110210/today.TAPP.min.grad.png
What's the difference between the -47 degree wind chill at Medford and the -60 up north? Your eyeballs freeze in 3.7 minutes instead of 2.8 minutes.
Now what's the difference between our "historic" brutal cold weather and up north? A week later, we're in the 70s and 80s.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110217/today.tmax.png
That's a 110-degree swing at Nowata.
Put that in your frozen pipe and smoke it!
Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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