Ticker for February 13, 2012

                
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February 13, 2012  February 13, 2012  February 13, 2012  February 13, 2012


A very nice snow

Much as advertised, a decent blanket of snow covered the state overnight.
Nothing major, other than a travel disruption of about 12 hours or so. The
cynical folks out there will say we Okies blew this one a bit out of proportion.
You know the type. They're the ones that didn't like "The Natural" and
root for Old Man Smithers to finally get  Scooby Doo and those meddling
kids. But hey, haven't we earned the right to get a bit overly excited about
winter weather? In the last 12 years, we've seen 10 significant ice storms that
did about $2 billion in damage and left a couple of million people without
power. Then there's the string of blizzards we've had the last three years,
including breaking the state's all-time 24-hour snowfall record twice in that
span. Best to be overly prepared and overdo it rather than be unprepared
should the weather not follow the script we want.

Snow is Mother Nature's soaker hose, so it's great for replenishing dry soils.
Some of the folks that really needed the moisture (hey to the Panhandle) missed
out, but at least far southwestern Oklahoma received its fair share. Snowfall
totals from across the state were mostly from 1-3 inches, but there were streaks
of 4-6 inches scattered about. It really just depended on where those snow bands
set up at. Here are some graphical representations from the NWS offices in
Norman and Tulsa of the snow amounts reported to their offices.




The NWS COOPerative observer at Sayre reported 5.2 inches, and more importantly
0.57 inches of liquid equivalent precipitation (what's the melted snow worth).
Here are some of the larger snowfall totals from across the state, as well as
their liquid equivalent totals (M = Missing).

-****-
Station	     Precipitation 	Snowfall
SAYRE	          0.57	           5.2
HOBART	            M	           5.0
BRAMAN	          0.21	           4.9
ORIENTA	          0.32	           4.8
VINSON 6 NW	  0.45	           4.5
HEADRICK	  0.36	           4.3
ROOSEVELT	  0.05	           4.0
MORAVIA     	  0.38	           4.0
WATONGA	          0.24	           4.0
LEEDEY	            M 	           4.0
INGALLS	          0.23	           4.0
HELENA 1 SSE	  0.36	           4.0
-***-

So there you go, a nice white blanket for the state. Don't hate the snow, look
on it with the eyes of your youth (sorry, you'll probably still need your
glasses). After all, don't kids really know better sometimes? See: chores,
spinach, piano lessons, etc. I'll draw the line at those Chipmunk movies,
however.

Now go enjoy the snow for another day, gorge on all that extra food you bought,
and then look forward to the 50s and 60s for the rest of the week. And spinach
lovers, don't bother e-mailing ... it ain't gonna work!

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