Ticker for January 31, 2008

                
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January 31, 2008   January 31, 2008   January 31, 2008   January 31, 2008



Recipe for De-Icer

The following maps paint a picture of hazard for the traveling public:




Together, significant precipitation, rapidly dropping air temperatures,
and (initially) warm ground temperatures all point to a common result:
treacherous bridges and overpasses, and eventually, roadways.

Of course, the temps of bridges and overpasses respond more quickly
to cold air than road-bed surfaces, and as temperatures continue their
plummet, melted precip on roadways begins to freeze as well. Traffic
hazards reported by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol are increasing through
the morning.


MildBurst Hits Altus

A strange phenomenon hit Altus during the overnight hours, captured in
this Mesonet plot and Mesonet meteogram:



The plot shows Altus reaching a temperature of 51 F at 3:00 (which will
likely be its high temperature for the day) as an element of very
unimpressive precipitation passed over the station. Interestingly, the
dew point temperature rose dramatically as well.

So, what happened?

This is probably *not* a case of a classic heatburst, as the convection
(if you could even call it that) was never very impressive. Most
likely, this feature has to do with the mixing of slightly warmer and
moister air just above the surface. At the time, Altus was smack-dab
in the middle of a surface frontal zone, where lots of mixing happens
naturally. The precipitation elements probably helped this process
along.

(Thanks to the NWS's Patrick Burke, NSSL's Kevin Manross, and OCS's
Andrew Reader for the communal 'heads-up')