Ticker for July 2, 2008

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
July 2, 2008       July 2, 2008       July 2, 2008       July 2, 2008



A Brief and Star-Spangled Programming Note

We found out a few days ago that one of our recent Tickers will be
featured as the University Space Research Administration's "Earth
Science Picture of the Day" for July 4th.

http://epod.usra.edu/

By our count, this is our 4th appearance on EPOD. Does this mean
we are the David Brenner to their Johnny Carson? Probably not.
Mr. Brenner was not so keen on offering potentially useless,
regionally-targeted information. We prefer to think of ourselves
as the Cliff to their Cheers.

No reason was given for the curious publishing date. But if a
reason were given, it would probably include references to the
Ticker's reflection of the many slices of Americana, our relentless
and indisputable patriotism, and our obvious connections to that
which makes America great. Of course, we would respond with an
appropriate expression of how humbled we were to receive such
accolades.


Back to the Requests Hopper

Another recent request:

"Why does Oklahoma have so many thunderstorms, tornadoes,
ice storms, and other radical weather?"

The answer is complex, and here's a multi-page document that
attempts to describe it:
http://climate.mesonet.org/county_climate/Products/oklahoma_climate_overview.pdf

If you're not up for the long read, here are the Cliff's Notes:

* Latitude places near the jet stream most of the year, allows
for dynamic support of, uh, dynamic weather.
* Near enough to the Gulf to access moisture, the fuel for storms
* Northern enough to get occasional cold air outbreak
* Placed poleward of a north-south (TX-MX) coastline, which sets up
a persistent dryline boundary. (one of 3-4 such places on earth)
* Just east of major mountain chain, which enhances "spin" that
encourages the development of storm systems and the severity of
individual storms