Ticker for April 25, 2012

                TICKER UPDATE: Erick Mesonet site nears all-time highest April temperature

As of 3:00 p.m., the Mesonet site at Erick had reached 105 degrees. That ties
the second highest temperature ever recorded in Oklahoma during April.



Here are the highest temperatures recorded during April, including today's mark
from Erick.

-****-
Site             Temperature        Date
Mangum              106F         4/12/1972
Altus               105F         4/12/1972
Buffalo             105F         4/23/1989
Erick Mesonet       105F         4/25/2012
Bartlesville        104F         4/12/1972
Cloud Chief         104F         4/12/1972
Stillwater          104F         4/13/1972
-***-

This shatters the record for April 25 itself. The old record was 100 degrees
from Frederick on this date in 1959 and at Tipton, again in 1959.

You can track the maximum high temperatures for today on the Oklahoma Mesonet
for yourself at this site:

http://www.mesonet.org/index.php/weather/map/todays_maximum_temps/air_temperature

Observations from the NWS' Cooperative observers will trickle in throughout the
day with the possibility for records at those stations as well.

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



MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
April 25, 2012     April 25, 2012     April 25, 2012     April 25, 2012


Triple digits in April...rare?

Apparently so. I put on my miner's hat and dug back through the NWS coop data
archives to search for triple-digit temperatures during April in Oklahoma. I
started with 1893 and I stopped in 2010. For 2011 I went with Oklahoma Mesonet
data. So we have 119 years of April in the record books, or 3570 possible days.
There are 491 COOP stations in the archive, but not always active so we won't
use that statistic. Just know that there are a bunch of them out there to
sample the air temperature. And of course there are 120 Mesonet stations, for
2011's sake.

Of all those stations and all those years, I found 165 instances of triple-digit
temperatures recorded in Oklahoma during April. Of those 165 100s, they were
spread out over 39 days. The first April 100-degree day in Oklahoma occurred on
April 4, 1893, at Purcell. Some periods back in history were obviously scorchers,
such as April 14-19, 2006. Oklahoma was enveloped by bigtime drought at that time,
and 24 of our 165 readings came from those days. Other hot times included April
22-24, 1989 (15 100s) and April 18-20, 1925 (10 100s). The biggie was April
11-13, 1972, with 68 100s during that period, or 41%. In fact, 71% of the 100s
came during those four periods. Basically, 100s occurred on 1.1% of the
possible days in Oklahoma. So fairly rare indeed. Interestingly, only two of
our 165 100s occurred during the hot Dust Bowl days (Alva, April 14, 1936, and
April 29, 1936, at Cloud Chief).

It does appear that Oklahoma will likely have some triple-digit temperatures
today out west. Near-record or record highs are forecast for much of the state.





Here's a look at the records to shoot for today.



We're certainly off to a warm start, as evidenced by the Mesonet low temperature
map, some of which were undoubtedly records.




What would 100s today mean for this summer? In reality, not much. Obviously the
100s during last April turned into a slew of triple-digits for the summer, but
last year had one of the worst short-term droughts in our history to work with.
This year was have lush green vegetation and gobs of soil moisture working our
favor (so far). A hot summer is always possible in Oklahoma. A 2011-esque
summer? Doubtful.




One of the worrying factors would be hot southwesterly winds blowing off the
exceptional drought area covering much of west Texas. A drying wind like that
can spread drought, much as it did last year for eastern Oklahoma, which had
come out of drought conditions in April and May. The heat and drought in the
western half of the state made short work of eastern Oklahoma's moisture supply
by the time July rolled around.

Something to think about. Or not.

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