Ticker for September 2, 2004

                
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September 2, 2004  September 2, 2004  September 2, 2004  September 2, 2004



News Flash: August 2004 Much Cooler than Normal

In a bit of climate news that's sure to astound nobody, August 2004
was indeed very cool.  As climatologist Gary McManus notes in the
August 2004 OCS Monthly Summary, the statewide-averaged temperature
of 75.8 stands as the 5th-coolest since modern record-keeping began
in 1895.  The coolness was broad-based, as none of Oklahoma's nine
climate divisions finished any warmer than "6th coolest".

The cool August helped underscore a very cool summer (Jun-Aug in the
climatologist's world).  The season also finished as the 5th-coolest
statewide.

A convenient elevator conversation with OU School of Meteorology
director Dr. Fred Carr prompted the Ticker staff to look into the
nature of August's coolness.  It turns out that, when compared to
history, August 2004's daytime temps were even more displaced from
their historical standards than the nighttime temps.  This is
probably indicative of the very cloudy nature of this August, which
helped reinforce [relative] coolness during the day, while holding
temps up (again, relatively speaking) overnight.

Here are some stats from five locations within the state:

August High Temps      August Low Temps
2004 / NORM / DIFF     2004 / NORM / DIFF
Hobart      90.1 / 94.7 / -4.6     66.5 / 69.7 / -3.2
Gage        86.5 / 92.5 / -6.0     62.3 / 66.2 / -3.9
McAlester   87.7 / 93.8 / -6.1     66.2 / 70.3 / -4.1
Okla City   86.7 / 92.6 / -5.9     66.4 / 70.0 / -3.6
Tulsa       87.5 / 93.4 / -5.9     66.5 / 71.3 / -4.8