Ticker for March 21, 2003

                
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March 21, 2003     March 21, 2003     March 21, 2003     March 21, 2003


Welcome, Spring (correction)

Yesterday at 7:00 pm, the sun crossed the equator to join us up here
in the Northern Hemisphere.  In other words, today is the first full day
of spring.  Early spring brings many things: fat robins, daffodils,
dandelions, and the absurd and misplaced hopes of Cub fans.

Over the next few weeks, the statistical likelihood of freezing
temperatures will slowly diminish.  The average date of spring's
last freeze occurs over the next three weeks as you go from southeast
Oklahoma to the eastern edge of the panhandle.  Out in the panhandle,
the average date occurs in mid to late April.

Of course, these dates are only averages.  The actual date of
spring's last freeze varies from year to year.

You can see these dates in pictures at the OCS climate pages:
http://climate.mesonet.org/normals_extremes.html
(click on "State Temperature Maps")