MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... August 22, 2017 August 22, 2017 August 22, 2017 August 22, 2017
Eclipsing summer
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/foraker-meteogram.png
Very impressive...very impressive indeed. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on the eclipse, as my time is waning faster than my hairline. So I'll not be waxing poetic too much, but take a look at that meteogram from the Foraker (Osage County) Mesonet site. You can see the obvious drop in solar radiation at the bottom as the eclipse began and ended, as well as an equally obvious drop in temperature (top) AND wind speed (2nd from top). Not quite as noticeable is a leveling off somewhat of the barometric pressure (3rd from top). All demonstrate exactly how important that daytime heating is to the microscale-to-mesoscale-to-synoptic scale changes in our environment. Less sunlight, less turbulent mixing of the air, less wind speed, etc. Here's a close up view of the Foraker eclipse period. Notice on the bottom we have plotted the Tair (temperature at 1.5 meters) and also the Ta9m (temperature at 9 meters). The obvious drop in temperature down where we're at around 1.5 meters is more pronounced than the temperature at 9 meters.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/foraker-closeup.png
So the drop in sensible heat was greater close to the ground than about 30 feet up. Verrrrry interesting physics at play.
Okay, let's close the book on the solar eclipse and head to another important eclipse...another eclipse of summer. We had a good run of about 2 weeks at the beginning of August where the month seemed to jump ahead to mid-September. Then summer came roaring (AND I MEAN ROARING!!) back with heat indices jumping back into the 105-110 range. Even yesterday was roasting across most of the state.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/yesterdays-heat-index.png
Notice the rain-cooled air for those unfortunate souls in the NW. They were lucky to get rain, but much more unlucky to miss out on the eclipse. Well, good timing for the rest of us as a cold front will move into the state and bring a chance of rain and cooler weather over the next several days. We'll show you today's forecast highs and then Saturday's as bookends.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/todays-forecast-highs.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/saturdays-forecast-highs.png
Here are some looks ahead by our NWS friends that will give you a better idea of what I'm talking about.
http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/norman-nws-forecast.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/tulsa-nws-forecast.png http://ticker.mesonet.org/archive/20170822/nws-shreveport-forecast.jpg
Like the Shreveport folks say, there will possibly be a tropical system moving ashore sometime over the weekend, which COULD impact Oklahoma, ESPECIALLY far southeast Oklahoma, but right now it looks as if the system MAY stay to our southeast.
Verrrrry interesting indeed.
Gary McManus State Climatologist Oklahoma Mesonet Oklahoma Climatological Survey (405) 325-2253 gmcmanus@mesonet.org
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