Ticker for February 9, 2015

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
February 9, 2015   February 9, 2015   February 9, 2015   February 9, 2015


Sprung?

Records have been falling over the last several days as the warm weather of...
February?? continues. Arnett reached 85 degrees on the seventh with a lot of
other NW OK stations not far behind. That's actually the second highest temperature
ever recorded in the state of Oklahoma on any February 7, next to Eufaula's 88
degrees on that date back in 1926. So yes, this warmth is significant! And
high temperature maps like this from yesterday cause many of us to think about
bringing the warm weather gear out of hiding for good and stashing the winter
coats.



But alas, all good things must end, no? We'll start to see the impacts of a mere
brush with arctic air plunging south across the eastern half of the country over
the next several days. And much like Mercutio's "scratch," 'tis enough. Ask about
temperatures in the 80s tomorrow and you shall find them a grave man. A PLAGUE ON
ARCTIC AIR!

Okay, enough of English Literature class, these temperature forecast maps will
suffice.





You can see a bit of a rebound starting out west on Thursday as that cold air
dome starts to pull farther to the east (should be a cool air dome...we're not
talking 30s here) until we get widespread 60s back on Friday.



Following that, we'll be stuck between cold air to the east and warm air to the
west, so expect some vacillation on Mother Nature's part between "YAYYYYY, 70s
again!!!" and "grab a jacket, it's all the way down to 50." Unfortunately,
very little in the way of moisture is expected over the next week. A few showers
with that frontal passage on Wednesday, maybe.



For what it's worth, the 8-14 day outlooks from CPC do show the possibility of
cool and wet weather, although these are from the weekend when a human forecaster
hasn't had a chance to make any adjustments. Today's outlooks might look quite
a bit different on the precip side, but it does look like we'll still have that
cold East and warm West scenario in place still. Last year that meant lots of
dry cold fronts for Oklahoma, so keep that in mind.




We REALLY need some good moisture, and fast, especially in northern Oklahoma
where those winter crops are starting to gasp for water. Until then, we're
still fortune's fool.

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