Ticker for September 26, 2000

                
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September 26, 2000 September 26, 2000 September 26, 2000 September 26, 2000


Four More Stations Record Sub-Freezing Lows

The minimum air temperature at four west-central Oklahoma stations dipped
briefly below freezing this morning.

Station     Minimum    Time Under 32F
Camargo     29 F       2.33 hrs
El Reno     30 F       2.42 hrs
Erick       32 F       0.42 hrs
Mangum      30 F       3.00 hrs

Camargo, Erick and Mangum are sorta near each other, but El Reno?
How did El Reno hit 30 F, while nearby Watonga only dipped to 42 F?
Well, a quick look at their respective meteograms


shows that winds
at Watonga stayed southwesterly at 8-10 miles per hour, but winds at
El Reno died down to light and variable just before sunrise (which is
exactly when the temperature bottomed out).  The decoupling prevented
mixing of any warm air from just above the surface layer at El Reno.

Soil temperatures remain in the 60s at these locations, so the impact
of the freezing temps was likely minimal (ditto for the panhandle stations
that "froze" yesterday).