Ticker for May 20, 2005

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
May 20, 2005       May 20, 2005       May 20, 2005       May 20, 2005



Altus and Grandfield Notch Mesonet's First 100 of 2005

The Altus and Grandfield sites both touched the century mark today.
Grandfield recorded a high temperature of 100.4F at 3:00 pm. Altus
needed a little help from rouding, but its 99.7F at 3:05 pm was
close enough for the Ticker staff (note to self: avoid 'government
work' comment here).

We now have 90 years' worth of good data at the Altus cooperative
site. This healthy record can tell us a little about how this
"First 100" stands up to history. First of all, Altus has been
lucky (?) enough to top the century mark in each of the 90 summers!
Secondly, this year's date of May 20 will tie 1953 for 24th place
on the "First Date to Top 100 at Altus" list.

In other words, [recent] climatological history says two things:
1. It was bound to happen at Altus, and
2. only about one of every four years featured an earlier "First 100"
at Altus than 2005.