Ticker for July 26, 2004

                
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July 26, 2004      July 26, 2004      July 26, 2004      July 26, 2004



An Anniversary We'd Like To Forget

We at the Ticker hope you enjoyed the wonderful October weekend
we just experienced.  Sure, it came three months early, but it
was beautiful nonetheless.

Perhaps we can pour a bucket of cold water - make that hot water -
on the delightful conditions by reminding that this month marks
the 50th anniversary of the hottest month ever recorded in Oklahoma's
modern climate history.

That's right, July 1954's statewide average temperature of 88.1 F
is easily the higest monthly number in our annals that date to 1895.
The top five scorcher months are:
Jul 1954: 88.1 F
Jul 1980: 87.4 F
Jul 1934: 87.3 F
Aug 1936: 87.2 F
Aug 1943: 86.4 F

Perhaps the misery of July 1954 is best relayed as a story.  In that
fateful month, a young man attended Boy Scout Camp innorthwestern
Oklahoma.  High temperatures routinely threatened 110 F. There was
no air conditioning, which made his bunkroom an insufferable oven.
There was no relief outside, as the swimming pool was under repair.
For a week, the young man labored in the oppressive heat - enhanced
by drought and a harvested wheat crop.  Worst of all, he missed
the All-Star game on the radio.

The trauma of that week shaped this young man. Rising like a Phoenix
from the Phoenix-like climate of Camp, little Howy Johnson grew up
to become Howard Johnson, this state's longtime Associate State
Climatologist.  Under Howard's watchful surveillance, no summer month
even approached 1954's astronomical temperature (1980 wasn't his
fault: Howard wasn't on the job yet).  Sure, Howard continues to deny
taking an active role in preventing another 1954-like calamity.
But we all know he was working the knobs and dials of Oklahoma's
climate controls, ensuring that no kid should ever endure such
misery.