Ticker for June 12, 2003

                
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June 12, 2003      June 12, 2003      June 12, 2003      June 12, 2003


Severe Winds Buffet State

Last night's squall lines and severe weather produced widespread
observations of severe winds.  Here are selected wind gusts
observed by Oklahoma Mesonet stations:

Medicine Park  81 mph  9:05p    Kenton         59 mph  6:35p
Sulphur        72 mph 10:40p    Newport        58 mph 10:05p
Ninnekah       71 mph  9:30p    Ketchum Ranch  58 mph  9:55p
Medicine Park  71 mph  9:00p    Washington     57 mph 10:00p
Ninnekah       65 mph  9:35p    Ketchum Ranch  57 mph 10:00p
Medicine Park  65 mph  9:10p    Acme           57 mph  9:25p
Acme           64 mph  9:35p    Kenton         57 mph  6:40p
Calvin         63 mph 11:20p    Erick          57 mph  6:30p
Ada            63 mph 11:00p    Acme           56 mph  9:40p
Acme           63 mph  9:30p    Hinton         56 mph  8:40p
Medicine Park  61 mph  8:55p    Bessie         56 mph  7:40p
Ketchum Ranch  59 mph  9:50p    Ada            55 mph 11:05p
Ninnekah       59 mph  9:25p    Shawnee        55 mph 10:55p
Bessie         59 mph  7:45p    Washington     55 mph  9:55p


What Do You Mean, 23rd Place?

The first 12 days of June have been undeniably wet across almost all
of Oklahoma.  The statewide-averaged rainfall so far this June is
a hefty 2.63".  That's gotta be near the top of history's list,
right?  Well, it's actually in 23rd place of the 83 such periods
since 1921.

Why so?  Because June, unlike any other month on the calendar, has
a split personality.  Historically speaking, the first 15 days of
the month are, well, a lot like we've seen in the last two weeks.
As we move into the last two weeks of the month, though, the
abundance of rain drops, and drops sharply.

The following image shows how rainfall is distributed within the
month of June for each of the state's nine climate divisions:



Here's a map of Oklahoma's Climate Divisions: