Ticker for June 29, 2015

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
June 29, 2015      June 29, 2015      June 29, 2015      June 29, 2015


Is there rain after Bill? And check out Jupiter and Venus tonight!

It's been awhile since we Ticked (or even Tocked). We were on the road to see
all the other state climatologists at the annual conference in New Jersey. You
know, the place where they make the salsa? We went through a ton of rain to get
there and back, after Bill's passage through Oklahoma, and what we saw in May,
it was all child's play. We got back from New Jersey to find a pretty sad
rainfall map since Bill's departure.



Nothing really shocking here. We've said time and time again that the OK rainy
season tends to die down just a bit around mid-June. The long-term average
rainfall map for Oklahoma based on the statewide average Mesonet data (2000-2014).



You can see from this graph however that we have had three pretty distinct wet
periods this spring (the green area of the graph is the 2015 departure from
average rainfall totals from the Mesonet...again, based on statewide average)...
much of April, much of May, and Bill's sojourn through Oklahoma during June.



Back to June, we saw the last 10 days were fairly dry, but the statewide average
is still going to finish with a fairly high ranking come tomorrow when the
final statistics come in. As of this morning, we've seen the 26th wettest June
since at least 1921, but that is heavily influenced by the plume of tropical
moisture provided by Bill from SC through NE Oklahoma. Other areas were
exceedingly dry during the month, such as NC OK's 25th driest June on record.





I'm not saying that drought is trying to develop there just yet, but it is an
area to watch since it didn't see the humongous rainfall totals of the southern
half of the state since April. We've busted out the black crayon to show you
our areas of concern.



And up around Osage County, they've been a bit below normal during that period.



We're lucky that it hasn't been blistering hot so far, although June will be
warmer than normal when the final stats play out.

So far, the statewide average temperature is about 1.6 degrees above normal
(avg. highs 1.1 degrees above normal, avg. lows 2.6 degrees above normal). Not
a shock the lows are dominating since all this moisture does tend to help trap
that heat overnight a bit more.

So what about the next week or so? Looks to me like we'll see a front sag into
northern Oklahoma and become a focus area for storms.



The Norman NWS office thinks we'll see a stormy 4th of July weekend, so maybe
some natural fireworks as well. Same idea from Amarillo. Both indicate it will
be hot before we see that rain this coming weekend.




Tomorrow looks to be fairly hot and fairly clear, which is good for those
wanting to see a fairly significant astronomical event. Here's a synopsis of
the event sent to us from the Mesonet's OK-FIRE guru Dr. J.D. Carlson of OSU:

"If we can get the Tuesday night sky to cooperate, there will be an
amazing conjunction of the two brightest planets (Venus and Jupiter).
On that night they will only be 0.3 degree apart and will look
spectacular. I?ve been watching them get closer every night. This
will be the closest they get through at least 2040. And according to
the last link, this is the closest conjunction in 2000 years! So a
must see if skies are clear. Good time to see them is around 9:30
in the west-northwest (up about 45 degrees or so)"

So go watch for that. Be sure to use your bug spray because the mosquitoes will
also be out patrolling the skies.

Summertime in Oklahoma...we'll welcome the cool front this weekend!

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