Ticker for February 4, 2011

                
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February 4, 2011   February 4, 2011   February 4, 2011   February 4, 2011


Chinook (Sh)inanigans

Go west, young (or old) man (or woman). The Ticker is all-inclusive. You want to
get some sunshine and be free of the snow? You don't have to go to the Caribbean.
Just head to the Oklahoma Panhandle. Temperatures are up to 46 degrees as of
2:25 p.m. with plenty of sunshine.




I would guess (much like my forecasting ability) that part of this warm-up is
due to compressional heating as the winds come down off the lee of the Rockies.
This is also known as a Chinook wind. The air compresses and warms as it descends
to lower elevations. As you can see, the winds are gusting to over 25 mph in
the Panhandle with a bit of a west component.



The effect is manifested in the 3- and 24-hour temperature change maps from
the Mesonet.




It also makes for quite a meteogram, as you can see from the time trace for the
last 3 days at Kenton!



Gary McManus
Associate State Climatologist
Oklahoma Climatological Survey
(405) 325-2253
gmcmanus@mesonet.org