Ticker for February 12, 2013

                
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February 12, 2013  February 12, 2013  February 12, 2013  February 12, 2013


A beautiful sight!

If today's weather was a 1980s movie, we'd already have started the slow-clap.
The rain and snow would be a smallish-yet-deceivingly-handsome young lad and the
drought the larger and blonder handsome devil that bullies him. How the drought
learned karate, I have NO idea. Like any good 80s movie, however, the rain-snow
wins this day, to the cheers of the crowd.

And here comes the moisture! Looks like we have quite a dumping going on out
west, but my eyes are drawn to that rain across southern Oklahoma.



The Mesonet has already recorded nearly a half-inch of rain down there, with
more on the way.



Now notice that blue area up in the northwest. That's the RFC's radar estimated
overlay picking up the snowfall. The Mesonet has unheated rain gauges, so it
won't measure it as precipitation until it starts melting ("it" being the snow,
not the Mesonet ... that was the Summer of 2011). But the River Forecast Center's
overlay shows over a quarter of an inch in southern Texas County already.

Here are the snow total forecasts from the area NWS offices. Looks like west
central Oklahoma is going to be in a winter wonderland today, with a nice
blanket of white covering up 2-plus years worth of brown for a little while.





The Hydrometeorological Prediction Center's (HPC) liquid-total forecast issued
earlier this morning calls for about a half-inch to nearly and inch with that
bullseye in southwest Oklahoma. That seems like it could be a bit of an
underestimate.



Even better news, there's the possibility for more rain down the road, which
is shown in the 7-day totals (this morning through the morning of the 19th).



Now if'n you're like me (I heard that! We've talked about this before!), you're
just glad to see any type of moisture. A bit of snow definitely adds some
excitement to the mix.

In fact, just in case nobody else has started it yet, here goes ...

clap

clap

clap

Oh, it's on now!

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