Ticker for August 24, 2012

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
August 24, 2012    August 24, 2012    August 24, 2012    August 24, 2012


Come aboard. We're expecting you...

I have been asked by many people to quit talking about rain because I'm a jinx. I
take exception to that characterization. After all, I was silent for many years
about both hair and money, and I have little of either. Plus, I talk endlessly
about drought and that hasn't seemed to jinx that! Well, maybe it only jinxes
good things. But despite my efforts, it has rained anyway. It wasn't a
statewide drenching, but there has been over an inch in northwestern Oklahoma.



Putnam recorded 1.63 inches and it had gone over 70 days without at least 0.25"
of rain on any single day! That map from the Mesonet looks a lot less orange, but
there are still some holdouts. Our stations up in Noble County are still chugging
along at 63 consecutive days. I have a feeling this map is going to be mostly
green after this weekend.



The latest data still shows some good rains are yet to come as that upper-level
low out west tracks slowly to the east, as graphicalized by our friends from
the area NWS offices.





And this morning's HPC forecast has a similar look.



There was a brief flirtation with Isaac as he meanders through the Caribbean,
providing mirth and laughter as he deals spirits to happy people on the Promenade
Deck (youngsters, google it).



Whoops, wrong Isaac. It now appears that Tropical Storm Isaac will track a bit
farther to the west, but not make a run at Oklahoma. If you're going to Destin
or Mobile next week, however, I'd take an umbrella and a plane ticket to just
about anywhere else.




That track is not set in stone. Sometimes those tropical systems can behave
as erratically as a June bug in a bathroom. I'm not sure what that meant, but
when has that stopped me from writing it down?

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