Ticker for June 13, 2017

                
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June 13, 2017      June 13, 2017      June 13, 2017      June 13, 2017


Convection oven




I'm not sure when the eastern Panhandle decided to give southwestern Oklahoma a
run for its "hottest part of Oklahoma" money. This happened last year, too. Beaver,
Hooker, and Goodwell are once again leading the state in triple-digit temperature
readings on the Mesonet.



Normally when you see a 104 in the Panhandle, the heat index, given the drier
air in that part of the state, will kick down into the 90s (i.e., sweat can
evaporate in the drier air more readily, a cooling process for your body...see
Kenton and Boise City's heat index values). With dewpoints up into the 60s,
however, little comfort is felt. It did knock it down to 102 degrees, so they
had that going for them.



You don't have to go far for some drier air. The higher elevations of the
Rockies are obviously drier, and then the Desert Southwest is again obviously
drier as well.



The winds aren't helping much either. Normally we'd see a blast furnace effect.
Now with the humidity added in, a convection oven?



We're still on track for some rain across western Oklahoma later today, and
perhaps the northern two-thirds of the state the following two days. Some
storms could be severe, but in typical mid-June fashion, pretty tame stuff
mostly. Maybe some wind, some hail, a modicum of a downpour here and there.






Again, we're not talking deluges here.



Lots of maybes and could possiblys in there. One thing for certain? Heat. And
summer's just getting started.

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