Ticker for April 17, 2006

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
April 17, 2006     April 17, 2006     April 17, 2006     April 17, 2006



After 35,000 miles, whats a few million feet?

If you think this year has been windy, you are in good company.
There's a certain author of a certain clumsily-written e-letter
who thought that this year must be the windiest in recent memory,
hands down. Well, that guy was wrong.

Continuing with last week's trend of featuring cumulative statistics,
we decided to look at this year's fetch-to-date. Fetch is simply the
measure of how much wind has blown past a point (or observer).
For example, since Jan 1 at the Weatherford Mesonet station, about
35,318 miles of air have streamed past the propellor. That's enough
for a trip around the world with a few thousand miles of extra travel
left!

Anyway, we compared this year to the first twelve years of the Mesonet
Era (since 1994), and we were surprised that this wasn't the windiest
start of that stretch (it just seems that way, doesn't it?). Of the
13 years-to-date in the set, the first 106 days of 2006 ranks, well,
it depends on where in Oklahoma you live. In most of the eastern
two-thirds of the state, this period has been the 2nd-windiest
opening. For the rest of the state, the rank is third, and even fourth
for west-central Oklahoma:

Climate     2006 Fetch    Rank   Windier
Division    Jan1 - Apr15  of 13  Starts

Panhandle   29,970 miles   3rd   2002 (31,259); 1996 (30,853)
N.Central   29,406 miles   3rd   1996 (31,161); 2002 (30,116)
Northeast   24,958 miles   2nd   1996 (25,689)

W.Central   31,586 miles   4th   1996 (33,391); 2002 (32,586); 1999 (31,834)
Central     26,734 miles   2nd   1996 (29,050)
E.Central   22,949 miles   2nd   1996 (24,091)

Southwest   30,172 miles   3rd   1996 (32,543); 2002 (30,253)
S.Central   24,698 miles   2nd   1996 (27,199)
Southeast   16,685 miles   2nd   1996 (17,682)

Statewide   26,348 miles   2nd   1996 (28,037)


And, if you like graphics, here's the complete history:


It should be noted ... strongly ... that each of the windier periods
corresponded with the drought-riddled winters and springs of 1996,
2002, and (in the case of west-central OK) 1999.

Also, the relative rank of this year (more of a standout in the east
than in the west) supports our anecdotal observation that drylines
seem to be pushing farther eastward with more consistency this year.