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. . . Ticker for March 28, 2016 . . .
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... March 28, 2016 March 28, 2016 March 28, 2016 March 28, 2016 Snow vs. Fire...who would win? Yes, for those of you that ignore the NW part of the state (shame on you, it's the best part!), they did receive a very nice Easter Sunday snow up that way. Now it wasn't anything compared to the then record-setting 26 inches that fell in late March 2009, but a good 2-4 inches. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/nws-norman-snow.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/nws-amarillo-snow.gif Laverne led the state (at least with the official COOP reports in thus far) at 6 inches. Now I'll let that slide seeing how Laverne was always Buffalo's arch- nemesis, but Buffalo undoubtedly had an unreported 7 inches (not really, looks like 3 inches estimated...DOH!). Slapout received about 5 inches and Arnett had 3 inches. So a decent snow late in the season, and this is difficult for me to say, but it has its benefits. 1) It fell on the Anderson Creek fire, which has now burned close to 400,000 acres. That's almost 650 square miles of land in Oklahoma and Kansas that has burned. Here you can see the snowfall on the MODIS satellite images (with labels for landmarks). You can tell it was snow and not clouds due to the contours of the rivers and lakes appearing so distinctly. However, you can also see most of that snow is now gone from the fire area. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/MODIS-north.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/MODIS-south.png 2) It probably helped the wheat crop up across that area by insulating it from some rather frigid temperatures Sunday morning (but not so much this morning). This was nothing compared to the freeze of last week, however, but potentially damaging nevertheless. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/yesterdays-lows.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/todays-lows.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/hours-below-28degrees.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/hours-below-32degrees.png 3) It did provide some much needed moisture, and while it was snowing up in the NW, showers and storms were bringing more moisture to other parts of the state. It wasn't enough to curtain the drought in that area, but every little bit helps. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/rainrfc.48hr.png We now turn our attention to the coming week where two big problems loom: 1) Continued fire danger, including exacerbating the conditions of the still uncontained Anderson Creek fire up in Woods County (and adjacent KS counties). The fire danger will be bad the next two days, but critical on Wednesday with the approach of a storm system that will bring those strong winds and a dryline to aid in fire ignition and spread. Watch for the fire advisories in the western Panhandle to spread east over the next few days. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/nws-norman-fire.planner.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/latest.oklahoma.fire.gif 2) The same storm system that is bringing increased fire danger on Wednesday will also bring increased severe weather chances. The Storm Prediction Center has Wednesday labeled as "slight risk" for the eastern half of the state already, but that could certainly change as we get closer. All modes of severe weather could be possible at this point, but there will still be a lot of fine tuning of that forecast and associated risks. http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/day3otlk_0730.gif http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/nws-norman-severe.jpg http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20160328/nws-tulsa-severe.gif Lots of excitement as usual. Ready for some boring! Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org ================================================== The OCS/Mesonet Ticker https://ticker.mesonet.org/ To subscribe or unsubscribe from the Ticker or for questions about the Ticker or its content Phone or Email the Ticker Manager at OCS Phone: 405-325-2253 Email: ticker@mesonet.org --------------------------------------------------- -C- Copyright 2024 Oklahoma Climatological Survey ===================================================