MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... January 7, 2014 January 7, 2014 January 7, 2014 January 7, 2014
Icewata
Another on-topic quote from one of my daughters this morning: "Daddy, this is the coldest winter I can remember!" Well, seeing that she's eight, that's not really saying much. She was alive for the late-January through mid-February 2011 icebox, but I guess that's slipped her memory. But she was also probably a big young for the frigid winter of 2009-10 as well, easily one of the 10 coldest on record for the state (8th coldest, in fact).
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/historical-winters.png
So yes, we have had cold winters recently. We still have about two months to go on this one (climatological winters run December-February), but December (17th coolest on record) and early January have certainly given the winter of 2013-14 a bit of a head start.
Records were falling left and right yesterday, both with the minimum temperatures but also the high temperatures that ended up looking like lows.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/yesterday-highs.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140106/jan6-record-low-tmax.png
Just how cold was yesterday across the state? Well, just brute forcing the data, taking an average of all the highs and lows from all Mesonet stations, we ended up with a statewide average temperature of 12.6 degrees, beating out December 7th's previous low mark this season of 14.3 degrees. Now historically, that 12.6 ranks as the 57th coldest day in Oklahoma history (tied with January 31, 1951, and January 1, 1979). Here are the top-10 coldest days statewide on record for Oklahoma.
-***- Date Avg. Temp 1989/12/22 1.8 1989/12/23 2.8 1983/12/22 3.4 1983/12/24 4.6 1983/12/25 4.9 1947/1/4 5.0 1930/1/17 5.1 1918/1/12 5.7 1959/1/4 5.8 1983/12/23 5.8 -****-
Kind of odd that five of the top-10 coldest days have been in late December, including the top five. It is close to the solstice where we see the least amount of sunshine, but our coldest average temperatures come right about now, usually. Personally, I blame Santa (I'm not worried ... the cold weather is already a lump of coal in my stocking). This morning was not quite as bad, but that's all relative to the last few days because I'd still call this morning NASTY. Nowata, which I've decided to rename "Icewata" (think the town council will agree?), earned the state's low temperature prize again with a mark of -4 degrees. Maybe a few more records fell.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/todays-lows.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/todays-record-lows.png
We're still looking at Friday and Saturday as a chance to get back close to "normal," although this ain't gonna be no heat wave ... 40s and 50s.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/friday-forecast-highs.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/saturday-forecast-highs.png
Despite the warm-up, we're still gonna see chances for wintry precipitation off and on over the next few days, but also just some good old cold rain. I'll let our friends at the local NWS offices tell the story with pictures.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/nws-norman1.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/nws-norman2.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/nws-tulsa.png
You can see there from the Norman graphic that as much as an inch of rain is possible from this system, which would be great news if it can fall far enough west. Here's the 7-day precip forecast that at least gives *some* hope for SW OK.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20140107/7day-rain-forecast.gif
So we're nearly out of the latest deep-freeze, and soon enough, this winter is going to end. Then how will you feel?
Well, warmer, of course.
Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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