Ticker for June 16, 2016

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
June 16, 2016      June 16, 2016      June 16, 2016      June 16, 2016


Yeah, I'm calling it...IT'S HOT!


Need I say anything more about the heat? Not miserable enough already? Well, let
me add to it by pointing out just how hot it was yesterday. In the "actual" (that
means air temperatures measured in the shade in a well aspirated environment)
temperature department, we reached 90s statewide and finally hit triple digits on
the Mesonet for the first time since Sept. 17 of last year when Freedom and Buffalo
hit 103 degrees. Yesterday it was Alva and Cherokee hitting 103 for the state's
highest reading.



But that hardly tells the story, now does it? Add the tremendous humidity to the
mix and the "apparent" temperatures, or the heat index values, skyrocket into
downright dangerous territory. The Marena and Bixby sites both hit 117, but most
areas were in the 110-115 range. If you were lucky enough to be in Cimarron County,
you felt low 90s.



And maybe the worst part is that low temperatures are only dropping into the
mid-70s over much of the state, approaching 80 in other areas.




So expect more of the same for the next few days until that large ridge of
high pressure that usually shows up a bit later in the summer starts to shift
to the west again (hopefully) early next week and drops us down from dangerously
hot conditions to just "wow, it's really hot" weather.







So just a reminder, parts of the state are under a heat advisory for heat indices
rising into the 105-110 degree range while parts of the northern half of the
state are under an excessive heat warning for heat indices from 110-120 degrees.
The NWS sez 110-115 degrees, but I'm turning the knob to 11...I mean 120.



To show you the scope of this early-season heat dome, we'll broaden out the view
on the advisories so you can see how widespread the heat is.



I don't know what to tell ya. I've warned of this occurring several times based
on the small sample size of the previous two summers following a strong El Nino
(summer of 1983 and summer of 1998)




and whether that explanation is one of the reasons this is occurring, it's rather
unpleasant to see it in action!

Stay cool, Oklahoma! It's not gonna get appreciably better for awhile.




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