Ticker for January 24, 2017

                
MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ... MESONET TICKER ...
January 24, 2017   January 24, 2017   January 24, 2017   January 24, 2017


Wilson!!




AH AH AH!!! Take one step back there, Tom Hanks, or it's back to the island for
you. Today is NOT the day to try and build a fire outdoors. As Dr. J.D. Carlson of
the Mesonet's OK-FIRE program will tell you, in the winter, it doesn't matter
how long ago it rained or whether you're in drought or not...it's the day-to-day
weather conditions that determine fire danger. Now both of those first two factors
do matter to some degree, but again, when you see warm, windy days with low
humidity interacting with dead and/or dormant vegetation, you tend to have high
fire danger. Hence the Red Flag fire warning for today.

High winds gusting to over 40 mph



A nice warm January day



Plunging humidity



Dead/dormant vegetation



equal fire danger




The fire danger should die down after today thanks to a cold front. Temperatures
will be back down into winter-ish territory, and there ain't a lick of rain in
sight for now.






Seems like we're good for one storm a month. When will February's hit?

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