Ticker for December 18, 2000

                
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December 18, 2000  December 18, 2000  December 18, 2000  December 18, 2000


Arctic Blast (again)

An arctic front invaded the panhandle Sunday night, accompanied by
straight-line winds which exceeded severe limits.  Here are some of
the all-star gusts of the evening, as of 12:30 am Monday morning:

Hooker     69 mph  9:05 pm      Goodwell   58 mph  8:50 pm
Hooker     64 mph  9:10 pm      Boise City 56 mph 12:10 am
Goodwell   64 mph  9:05 pm      Hooker     56 mph  8:50 pm
Hooker     62 mph  9:25 pm      Goodwell   56 mph  8:45 pm
Hooker     61 mph  9:30 pm      Goodwell   56 mph  8:40 pm
Hooker     61 mph  9:15 pm      Boise City 55 mph 12:15 am
Hooker     61 mph  9:00 pm      Goodwell   55 mph  9:15 pm
Goodwell   60 mph  9:20 pm      Hooker     55 mph  8:45 pm
Hooker     60 mph  9:20 pm      Boise City 54 mph 12:05 am
Goodwell   60 mph  9:10 pm      Hooker     53 mph  9:35 pm
Goodwell   58 mph  9:25 pm      Goodwell   53 mph  9:30 pm
Goodwell   58 mph  9:00 pm      Hooker     53 mph  8:55 pm


Alfalfa Model Bearer of Good News

On December 1st, the Oklahoma Alfalfa Weevil Model began operations
for another alfalfa season.  The model won't begin in full swing until
after the new year, but it already has some significant data.  Since
December 1st, many Mesonet stations in northern Oklahoma have recorded
several hours of temperatures less than 10 F:

http://agweather.mesonet.org/models/alfalfa/cumulativehr10.html

That's important because 10 degrees is a lethal temperature for eggs
of the alfalfa weevil, a common pest of the grassy crop.  So, for the
northern third of Oklahoma, the alfalfa weevil population has been
dealt a minor setback.  Alfalfa growers probably won't shed many
tears for the bugs.


Freeze Map Back Online

Due to current events, the "Duration of Current Freeze" map is back
in production.  By sunrise Monday, several Mesonet stations in
northeastern Oklahoma will have logged 48+ consecutive hours below
freezing.


Upon Further Review ...

Last Friday's Ticker featured a Quicktime movie of what we called
melting snow pack:
https://content.mesonet.org/ticker/archive/20001215/AUS_vis1.mov

Well, after a call from an OU professor, we checked out the surface
observations and a topographic map of Texas.  It turns out that it
wasn't snow pack after all.  The shrinking feature was actually an
eroding fog bank, nestled in several river valleys below the West
Texas caprock.