MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... February 15, 2011 February 15, 2011 February 15, 2011 February 15, 2011
Where's the snow?
Having trouble finding the snow? Well, that's because it melted. Glad to help.
But it hasn't melted everywhere, and you don't necessarily need a visible satellite view to discover that. Check out the max temperature map from the Oklahoma Mesonet today.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110215/today.TAIR.max.grad.png
Sort of obvious, but also a tad tricky. Let's add the solar radiation map from the Mesonet to help.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110215/current.SRAD.grad.png
A bit of missing data there, but we can tell in the far east-central and southeast that some cloudiness is responsible for some of the suppressed temperatures there. For confirmation, check out the visible satellite map.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20110215/snow_clouds.png
It may not seem like a lot of snow, but from reports in the northeast corner of the state, there is still 6-12 inches of snow on the ground. The sun is getting higher in the sky with each passing day and we're getting more sunlight, but the reflectivity (albedo) of that snow is still mighty powerful this time of year.
It remains to be seen if Nowata and those areas can reach the magical 100-degree temperature swing mark within a week. The albedo is working against them. Their biggest ally at this point (other than the sun) is the warmth carried northeastward on strong southwesterly winds.
The race is on!
Gary McManus Associate State Climatologist Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253
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